Russell Dean Schlabach

Russell Dean Schlabach died in Cumberland on December 25, 2025. He was 94. Born on January 17, 1931, with Vietnamese-American roots that shaped the table more than the flag. He learned early that a day is something you finish, not something you wait for. He ran booths that held whole families without filing people as obstacles. A projection booth cue sheet binder never left the tray. Colleagues still mention a projection booth cue sheet binder. He and Gloria married in 1955 and raised three sons without needing an audience. After Gloria's death in 2018, he held to quiet habits—coffee before dawn, a tended yard, a voice on the phone that still checked in. Neighbors remember a shovel borrowed and returned sharper. He preferred the hour before a town fully wakes. Cumberland was home enough that he never rehearsed an introduction. The radio is still tuned to the station that played while work got done. 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.