Gerald Joseph Russello

RUSSELLO, Gerald Joseph died November 7, 2021, after a yearlong illness, at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, NY. Surrounded by family, he was met with a spectacular sunset at the moment he passed. Born in 1971 and raised in the Old Mill Basin of Brooklyn, a borough he deeply loved and (only somewhat) jokingly called “God’s country,” Gerald grew up playing kick-the-can and climbing on rooftops, but his keen intellect and insatiable curiosity carried him to Manhattan’s Regis High School, then Georgetown, where he was a classics major, and ultimately to law school at New York University.

He was a lover of books, thoughts, principles and theology, with an analytical mind tempered by a creative spirit. As paralegals at Washington, D.C. firm Williams & Connolly, he and future wife Alexandra (Hines) Russello began a courtship marked by his love letters to her and a shared love of food, wine and family. Married for 23 years, they had three children, Emma, Georgia and William, and eventually moved from Gerald’s beloved Brooklyn to Pelham, NY. As a partner at New York City law firm Sidley Austin, where he had a broad investigations and securities practice, Gerald remained a man of letters and was a gifted author, having written or edited five books as well as countless articles. He served as the editor of The University Bookman, an online journal reviewing books on politics and culture. Throughout his career, his love of story-telling carried into his work. In a piece published last year by the Harvard Review, Gerald offered a simple perspective. “I spend much of my time exploring people’s memories,” he explained. “I listen to people tell me about events that happened weeks, months or even years before. My job is to go over the memories of many different people to try to find a reasonable facsimile of what really occurred.” It is fitting, therefore, that he leaves behind indelible and cherished memories for all who knew and loved him, especially his wife and children.

He will be remembered for his devotion to his family, friends and Catholic faith, his exceeding patience and kindness, and a laugh that was the definition of delightful. To hear Gerald Russello laugh was to believe, for even a brief moment, that all was right with the world. In addition to his wife and children, he is survived by his mother, Anne Russello, and sister, Susan (Russello) Buonocore, as well as five neices and nephews and countless cousins from a large and loving Sicilian-American family. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his name to Regis High School.

A celebration of Gerald’s life will take place at the Pelham Funeral Home located at 64 Lincoln Avenue, Pelham, New York on Thursday, November 11, 2021, from 3PM-8PM. The funeral mass will take place at Our Lady of Perpetual Help located at 559 Pelham Manor Rd., Pelham NY on Friday, November 12, 2021 at 10AM. For more information or to leave a condolence please visit www.pelhamfuneral.com