Herman Jerome Russell (December 23, 1930 – November 15, 2014) was an entrepreneur and influential figure in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia.

Business career

Russell served as the first African American member of the

Atlanta Chamber of Commerce The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce is the chamber of commerce for the Atlanta metropolitan area. It was founded in 1859. History The first Atlanta Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1859, and was chiefly concerned with fighting railroad rate ...

. He founded H. J. Russell & Company, the largest minority-owned real estate and construction business in the United States. Russell was a 1991 recipient of the

Horatio Alger Award The Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans is a nonprofit organization based in Alexandria, Virginia, that was founded in 1947 to honor the achievements of outstanding Americans who have succeeded in spite of adversity and to emphas ...

, and received the title Georgia Trustee from the

Georgia Historical Society The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) is a statewide historical society in Georgia. Headquartered in Savannah, Georgia, GHS is one of the oldest historical organizations in the United States. Since 1839, the society has collected, examined, and tau ...

in 2013. Russell's autobiography ''Building Atlanta'' was published in April 2014, shortly before his death.

Death

Herman J. Russell died on November 15, 2014, at the age of 83, in Atlanta Georgia and was buried at

South-View Cemetery South-View Cemetery is a historic African-American-founded cemetery located approximately 15 minutes from downtown Atlanta, Georgia. An active operational cemetery on over 100 acres of land, it is the oldest African-American cemetery in Atlanta, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Herman African-American business executives 1930 births 2014 deaths People from Atlanta Philanthropists from Georgia (U.S. state) Real estate and property developers 20th-century American philanthropists Burials at South-View Cemetery 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people