From the Marin Independent Journal May 1, 2004

Russell Robert Riviere

Russell Robert Riviere
Lived June 7th, 1948 - April 22nd, 2004

Russ Riviere was born at Marin General Hospital on June 7th, 1948, son of
Russ Riviere Sr. and Laverne Hunter Riviere. His mother came from the
notorious Plumber family (Henry Plumber was a Sheriff in Nevada City where
he regularly held up stage coaches until his incarceration at San Quentin.
After feigning illness, Henry Plumber was released, became a Sheriff in
Montana, continued to hold up stage coaches, and was eventually hanged).
Russ's father was a telephone engineer and lineman, and was considered one
of the Bell System Pioneers. Russ first came to the town of Bolinas when
he seven years old, riding along with his father as his father worked on
the cabling at the Marconi Ranch (RCA). At age 14, he moved to Bolinas. As
a child, Russ played football and he was (and remained throughout his
life) a copious reader. He became an honor role student in high school and
taught himself how to read Sanskrit in his spare time. Russ voluntarily
left school and, after personally meeting Lyndon B. Johnson, he went to
Vietnam in 1966. Russ was one of the "Screaming Eagles" in Vietnam, a
special group of paratroopers that were dropped in from the air to run
reconnaissance missions prior to the arrival of the rest of the force. He
did three tours in the war with the 101st Airborne. A front line fighter,
he was also a medic in the war. During his tours, he received both the
Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

After Vietnam, Russ returned to Bolinas and was married, briefly, to his
high school sweetheart, Tina. Russ played a significant role as an
engineer and leader in the battle to save the Bolinas Lagoon from the
historic Standard Oil spill of 1971. During this time, he co-founded the
offices of Future Studies, which became the "shadow government" for
Bolinas politics. As a politician and a revolutionary, Russ was
instrumental in the derailment of the Kennedy Plan, which called for an
increase in local housing by 10,000 units, to be built between Stinson
Beach and Bolinas. President Nixon had just signed the National
Environmental Policy Act, which allowed the people to protest and question
any project that received federal funding, and Future Studies, with Russ
as one of the main people at the helm, became the first group to challenge
the NEPA and the Kennedy Plan. The case was won, and Bolinas has remained
a relatively small, agricultural community to this day due in part because
of that time in history. As a visionary, he was among the group of authors
that created the Bolinas Community Plan, a manifesto for the long term
preservation of the community. He was a co-founder of Paradise Valley and
the New Land Fund and he put his work into creating a self-sustaining
survival model - farming, hunting, and fishing for food and, for many
years, living without electricity altogether.
 

Russ co-founded Pacific Slope Tree Cooperative and Western Star Tree
Company, and he was instrumental in the inception of the Bolinas Resource
Recovery Center. Russ, together with Susan Hewlett, had two children, Russ
Hunter and Jenny Lee. He was also the stepfather to Luigi and Stefano
Resta.
 

In the late 1970's, Russ traveled to Mexico to collect plant specimens for
the California Academy of Sciences with Dr. Dennis Breedlove. Russ was a
highly skilled tree climber, and he worked to find undiscovered plant
varietals. His role was to climb high into the canopy of the rain and
cloud forests. He became a climbing instructor for botanists in Veracruz,
teaching students from the University of Mexico, and indigenous people of
the area, how to climb so they could collect specimens independently. One
of the finds, a previously undiscovered Oak Tree, was named in his honor,
Quercus Riverii. During one of his climbs in Mexico, Russ was struck in
the hand by a venomous tropical snake. This was but one of numerous
brushes that Russ had with death. Dr. Breedlove recalls a story of the two
of them, several weeks deep into the jungle, hundreds of miles from any
civilization, regularly fending off corrupt police and bandits, when their
encampment was approached by hunters in the night. Within seconds, Russ
was forty feet up the nearest tree holding his knife in his teeth.
Afterwards, he explained to the Doctor that it was better that at least
one of them survive the incident. Russ's work in Mexico was interrupted
when he was first struck with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
 

In 1982, the day before he went to explore the Nicaraguan Rainforest, Russ
met Pamela Jane, who was later to become his wife, and together they
remained for 23 years.
 

Russ was an astute scholar of western lore and western fact. He could
recite from memory many fables of American Folklore, and he could derive
from historical manuscripts the whereabouts of certain gravesites or lost
treasures. He was considered a knowledgeable scholar on the subject of the
native peoples of the West, and he could identify Miwok gathering sites
and many other local points of interest. Many who knew Russ considered him
one of the greatest storytellers alive.
 

Many also recall his work, with colleague Patrick Holland, to save the
Pinion Forests in Nevada from massive clear-cutting. Recognizing that the
Paiute Indians relied on the nuts from the Pinion Trees, Russ intervened
and successfully blocked the Caterpillar tractors that were tearing up the
forests with chains. Russ was a respected ecologist and he always took a
firm stand in his beliefs on proper land management.
 

Throughout the course of his life, Russ was a highly productive writer
with a distinctive voice and tone. Russ authored several screenplays,
including "The Bone Game" and "Goners." During the last couple of months
before he passed away, Russ completed work on his collected writings, an
anthology due out within the next year, entitled: One Man Lion. He has
been published in several literary journals, and his snake bite story,
"The Twenty Breath Snake" was featured in Zzyzva. For pleasure, Russ liked
to write extensively long, information laden, rich and complex sentences
that he would then imagine being decomposed into parts on the chalkboard
of an English class.
 

Fearless, Russ was often feared himself. His sharp wit, his erudite mind,
and his quick right hook to the jaw, were all characteristics that had
potential to cause discomfort to those around him. Nonetheless, women
found him to be enormously charming and they swooned when he shared his
stories of adventure or narratives of history. Russ is survived by his
brother Randy, his wife Pamela Jane, his children Russ and Jenny, his
stepchildren Luigi and Stefano, his niece Renee, his nephews Bobby, Ryan,
and Zachary, and his four grandchildren Ezra, Stella, Maile, and Antonio.
Russ will be dearly missed by all his family and friends. A Memorial
Service celebrating the life of Russ Riviere will occur Sunday, May 2nd,
in Paradise Valley, Bolinas, in the apple orchard from 4-7 PM.
Published in the Marin Independent Journal on 5/1/2004.