Russell Dale Sokolov

Russell Dale Sokolov died in Asheville on August 18, 2026. He was 85. Born in Asheville on January 7, 1941, into a Russian-American household that treated work as a language. He learned early that a day is something you finish, not something you wait for. He rubbed stain into wood until color became character. A can labeled by hand sat on his bench; he could match a customer's memory of a table. Colleagues still mention a can of stain labeled by hand. He married Betty in 1967. They kept a house that stayed modest when the neighborhood did not. They raised a son through public schools and ordinary weather. After Betty died in 2019, he kept the routines that still made sense: the walk, the garden, the Sunday call. Neighbors remember covered dishes that arrived without a speech. He liked early mornings before the heat or the noise. He died in Asheville, among streets he never needed to explain. The key is still under the same brick.