[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 207 (Tuesday, December 8, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HONORING THE LIFE OF JAMES RUSSELL CAPPS

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                          HON. GEORGE HOLDING

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 8, 2020

  Mr. HOLDING. Madam Speaker, I rise today to take pause and reflect on 
the life of James Russell Capps.
  Russell Capps was born in Raleigh, North Carolina on February 26, 
1931. He attended Murphy Elementary School and Hugh Morson High School 
in the Oakwood neighborhood of Raleigh. He graduated from the Radio/
Television Institute of Chicago and then from Wake Forest University in 
1956 with a degree in Sociology.
  During the 1970s, Russell worked a position in radio and later 
television with WRAL News in Raleigh. Capps then went on to the 
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary for three years and served as 
a volunteer pastor at a Baptist church.
  Madam Speaker, in the 1960s he attended the Institute of Government 
in Chapel Hill, North Carolina for a number of studies in local 
government administration and fire service. In 1968, he served as the 
first Wake County Planning Director and later as the first director of 
Wake County Emergency Management and founded the Wake County Emergency 
Medical Services.
  Russell was then elected to the North Carolina State House of 
Representatives in 1994 and he served 6 terms in that body.
  For 22 years, Russell also served as President of the Tax Payers 
Association. He was a member of the Christian Action League of North 
Carolina for 40 years and he spent eighteen years as a department head 
in Wake County Government. Russell was also Fire Marshall of Wake 
County for seventeen years. He was a planner in the NC Department of 
Crime Control and Public Safety. He served as Wake County's first 
Planning Director who helped develop and prepare the original Wake 
County Comprehensive Development Plan.
  Sadly, Madam Speaker, Russell Capps passed away this year on October 
6, 2020. He was 89 years old. He will be missed by his friends, 
neighbors, family, and the entire community.

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