Russell Alan Ames

WESTPORT | Russell Alan Ames of Westport, New York, died Sept. 5, 2021. He was 91 years old and had recently been suffering from COPD. Born to Beatrice and Tracy Ames of Lexington, Massachusetts, on Dec. 19, 1929, Russell attended Harvard University, where he majored in music composition and theory. He served in the U.S. Navy in the early 1950s, and for several decades worked in administration at two private schools in New York City, Riverdale Country School and Horace Mann. In 1967 he married Margaret Moore Ames, to whom he was devoted until her death in 2001. Early recognized as a musical prodigy, Russell was a highly talented pianist. He wrote songs and directed productions for the Hasty Pudding Club at Harvard. At Riverdale, he accompanied and directed over a dozen Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, as well as several Broadway musicals, whose all-male casts created some hilarious moments. For some 20 years he accompanied the University Men's Glee Club. When he settled in Westport in 1997, he frequently played the piano for local churches and schools. Perhaps his greatest pleasure derived from collaborating with individual singers in performances ranging from Sondheim to Mozart, Puccini to Brahms. Russell's other great love was the Adirondacks. In his younger years he ascended almost all the High Peaks, often pausing for a cigarette break along the way. He climbed Algonquin and Cascade so many times that he lost count. Russell was, finally, a stickler for correct grammar and usage. As he was being moved into the ambulance taking him to the hospital in Middlebury, he gently corrected the EMT workers about their confusion of "lie" and "lay." Russell Ames is survived by his stepchildren, Barbara Foley and David Foley, as well as three step-grandchildren and four step-great-grandchildren. In accordance with his wishes, his ashes will be scattered from the summit of Cascade.

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