Russell Dean Fitzsimons

In Casper, on July 19, 2025, Russell Dean Fitzsimons died at 80. Born July 27, 1944 in Casper, carrying Brazilian-American stories that arrived without footnotes. Early on, he decided that a paycheck and a handshake should weigh the same. He kept lights that strangers would trust without knowing his name. A lighthouse log pencil stub worn bright taught apprentices to wait. Colleagues still mention a lighthouse log pencil stub. He married Gloria in 1969. They kept a house that stayed modest when the neighborhood did not. They raised a son and a daughter through public schools and ordinary weather. After Gloria died in 2018, he kept the routines that still made sense: the walk, the garden, the Sunday call. Neighbors remember the radio low on a Saturday while repairs got done. He preferred the hour before a town fully wakes. Casper was home enough that he never rehearsed an introduction. The calendar still has a circle on payday. What remains is not a legend but a practice: showing up, keeping a promise, leaving a place better than you found it. His life was the kind America is built from and too often forgets to name.