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DOWNING COLLEGE ASSOCIATIONChris Laurence Russon (1972) died on 20th May 2012, aged 59. He readEngineering. Michael Kemp (1972) informed us of his death and has submittedthe following obituary.Christopher Laurence Russon died in Cambridge from a brain tumour, justshort of his 60th birthday. Chris came up to Downing to read Mathematicsfrom King Edward VI School Camp Hill, Birmingham, taking a first beforegoing on to take Part II in Engineering (Operations Research), again taking afirst. He joined Applied Research of Cambridge, a spin out from the CADCentre, in the then new field of computer-aided design software for architecture.He remained in this field, in Cambridge, working in increasingly senior rolesfor companies large and small including McDonnell Douglas, Informatix, Aveyaand Sunrise Systems, for the whole of his career. In recent years, Chris seriouslyconsidered moving back into academia to pursue a long held interest inprobability theory and the perception of risk, but sadly this was not to be.Away from work, Chris’s interests included music, sport and travel. Whilstat Downing, Chris joined the Spriguns of Tolgus, a folk-rock band set up byMike Morton (Downing 1970) and his wife Mandy, playing weekly at theAnchor pub in Silver Street. Chris played on Spriguns’ first album, Jack withFeather (1975) which later reached cult status (and value) as one of the rarestand most collectable pop records. He continued to sing and play acoustic andelectric guitar, as well as mandolin, in various bands and for pleasure for therest of his life.In sport, Chris played his life somewhat in reverse. At Downing, Chris wouldrarely be seen playing anything more strenuous than croquet (though hewas nonetheless a fearsome opponent!). During his 40s he took up first golf,then rowing and finally, in his 50s he started running, which became hispassion. Chris was a member of the Cantabrigensis Hash House Harriers,becoming its Grand Master, and developed into an accomplished marathonrunner. He ran the London Marathon three times as well as marathons in anumber of cities across Europe.Chris was a very sociable person and built a huge network of friends andacquaintances around the world. His funeral, in St Andrews Church,Chesterton, was standing room only. The many runners present donnedspecially commissioned tee-shirts and ran from the church to a reception inDowning, where a toast was raised to the hashers’ traditional cheer of on-on.Chris leaves his wife Jenny, a headteacher, whom he married in 1980.John Scott Mason (1951) died in 2006.76