RCMP grant dying man’s wish, make him honorary Mountie

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This article was published 27/01/2020 (2110 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It took 68 years, but the Mounties finally got their man.

However, Jack Ervin Russell is definitely not one of the bad guys. Instead, the Manitoba RCMP made his dying wish come true by swearing him into the police force as an honorary member at the age of 88 last week.

Russell was 20 years old in 1951, when he was first accepted into the RCMP. Although becoming a Mountie was his dream career, he turned the offer down as his family needed him to remain at home in Elva, a tiny community in southwestern Manitoba.

Throughout his entire life, Russell wondered what could have been if he had joined the RCMP.

At the age of 88 with a terminal illness and only days to live, Russell’s family wanted to put those thoughts at ease, and so did the RCMP.

“As soon as I (heard Russell’s story), I made sure we got engaged. We absolutely had to do this,” said Assistant Commissioner and Commanding Officer for the Manitoba RCMP Jane MacLatchy.

“I thought it was a wonderful gesture to make him an honorary member of the RCMP because that had been his dream since he was a very young man. So that’s what we did.”

MacLatchy and a colleague met with Russell at the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, she said, and swore him in as an honorary member of the RCMP.

“It was really touching … it just felt really good that we could do something at the end of his life to make that dream come true and let him check something off his bucket list,” MacLatchy said.

“It was a special moment for us (the RCMP) as well. It feels good to do something good, and on Friday, we did something good.”

Russell’s son, Bob Russell, said his dad has been confined to a wheelchair for a few years following a stroke.

His condition has since become quite grave, Bob said, making the swearing-in ceremony an emotional experience for everyone involved.

“My dad was absolutely thrilled and touched, very emotional when this took place,” Bob said. “Even the commanding officer was fighting back her tears, as we all were. My dad was thrilled to get that honour.”

A father of three children and a grandfather to five grandchildren and a number of great-grandchildren, Russell spent his life as an electrician and businessman, Bob said, working for government services for 17 years until his retirement.

He was a member of the Dauphin volunteer fire department while living there in the late 1950s to early 1960s, Bob added, and was part of a civilian search and rescue team.

“He’s always been highly involved in whatever community he lives in,” Bob said. “The village of Elva was quite thriving, but it wasn’t a big place, and everybody was involved in the community, he learned it from his parents. He was born in 1931, just when the Depression started. He lived through the drought as a young man (and) through the war.”

Bob said his family is extremely grateful to the RCMP for bestowing the honour on their father.

“We’re going to miss him dearly, but his last few weeks here have been made very special by a lot of people, especially the RCMP,” Bob said. “They went above the call of duty for this.”

 

– Brandon Sun