Russell E. Groff: 1924-2010

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Russell E. Groff grew up in Pennsylvania, later his family moved to Oregon. He joined the Army during World War II and was stationed in Alabama.  That's where he met his wife, Robin, while he was recuperating from rheumatic fever; he learned to weave as physical therapy!

During his tenure as president of the Portland Weavers’ Guild during the early 1960s, Russ helped organize the Association of Pacific Northwest Handweavers with three guilds participating: Spokane, Seattle, and Portland.

Russ loved to read, write, and figure out how things worked.  He is credited with several patents for weaving equipment.  In addition, he manufactured looms and yarn winders and designed other weaving tools.

Russ started selling yarn from his apartment in Santa Barbara, CA where he and Robin lived while he was in college after the war.  He began teaching weaving in an adult-education program during his college years and started his yarn business with only $200.  He also wove yardage and sold handwoven clothing in the Kentucky Shop there.

In 1961-62, the business moved to McMinnville, OR, where it remained until his illness led to the dissolution of the business several years ago.

Russell provided the yarns and training for the weavers at the Timberline Lodge at the Mt. Hood Ski Area. The drapes and upholstery for all of the windows and furniture are still in service!  Four years ago, when he took me to meet the current curator, who was one of those young weavers, those same drapes were still hanging at the windows and the couches still sported their covers.  The curator was so delighted to see Russell that she cried.

One of the original looms used to weave those famous fabrics is still on display in the entry to the Lodge, along with some of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) uniforms that were shredded to use for rag rugs for the floors!  There's even one of those rugs proudly framed and hanging in a hallway with a WPA worker's shirt.

Russell taught me interesting, weaving-related history about Oregon.  Every time I flew out to work on the books with him, he would make me take a break to take a day trip to a place new to me.  And, every time he came to visit us in Virginia we took him to learn about our Colonial history.  In all the years of his traveling up and down the east coast, he had never stopped in Virginia to tour our country's beginnings.  Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, etc., amazed him.  He was especially proud of the fact that I took him to see the restoration at Jamestown the week before Queen Elizabeth came for the grand re-opening a couple of years ago.

Russ loved to travel and when he was fit, he and Robin would travel by bicycle and camp in a tent.  He told the funniest stories about critters getting into their camping gear!  He never lost his love of the out of doors.  Just last week he told me the deer that come up to the windows of his sun room had visited him, again.   He was even visited by a peacock on the deck last summer!  The thing sat on his roof for a whole day, and he called me just to tell me that.

In the very earliest years of publishing his famous newsletters, Russ devoted a section of his editorials to spotlighting weavers from all over the world whom he met either at his shop or when he traveled.  The first issue of Warp and Weft that he published after purchasing the newsletter copyright in January 1955, featured a weaver named Mary S. Clay from Clearwater, Florida.  In May of 1955, he included an interview with Harriet Douglas Tidball of the Shuttle-Craft Guild of Kelseyville, CA.  In the November issue, 1955, he featured Evelyn Neher of New Canaan, Connecticut.  She was responsible for giving us two books, which readers will recognize: Four Harness Huck and Inkle Loom Weaves, which Russ eventually published for her.

Russ published or purchased the copyrights to over 60 books and manuscripts over the years.  He published Warp and Weft for 47 of those years, and made provisions for those copyrights to be legally transferred and maintained along with the rights to all of his other publications.  Many of the authors of early drafts entrusted their work to Russ because he appreciated they legacy they left for the future of hand weaving.  Peter Collingwood spoke highly of Russell when I visited his home with my friend, Paddy Bakker a few years ago.  Peter asked Russ to publish his books, too.  Russ always went to see Peter when he was in England on his buying trips.  There were so many other weavers, designers, re-enactors, yarn companies, engineers, etc. whose lives Russell touched.   

When I met Russ, I was very new in this business.  He came into my booth, which was across from his huge one, and asked if I would consider trading some books with him.  I knew who he was, but would never have dreamed of asking him such a thing!  I had only a 10'x10' booth, and he had his usual mega booth with at least a dozen tables full of weaver's candy!  That's when I discovered his talent for mental math, too.  I was so afraid of losing a few dollars, that I got my calculator and started adding up the two stacks of books we intended to exchange.  By the time I got the first couple of numbers in the calculator, Russ said, "I think I owe you about $10, unless you want to pick out a couple more books from my booth."  After I got to my hotel room that evening, I still wasn't convinced, so I got out the calculator and sure enough, he was right on the money! 

Because Hospice on both the east and west coasts, as well as Veteran's Hospitals, were involved with Russ' care over the last two years, we called him our Energizer Bunny!  So many times, I have sat next to his hospital bed and was sure he wouldn't make it until morning.  In the last year, he has called me about twice a month to tell me, "My whole Hospice family spent the night with me last night, but I woke up, anyway!"  One time he told me, "I was just sure I was on the other side when I woke up, but I'm still alive!"

We joked with him and told him we were going to get him a plaque that named him as “Hospice's Only Failure!”  The nurses liked that one, too.  Hospice is usually called in the last one or two months of a patient's life.  I don't remember the exact date they started caring for Russ, but I do know it was close to two years.  He had been with Hospice for several months when they helped us make arrangements for him to be transferred to the east coast to stay with us for the holidays last year.  Gary and I will treasure that Christmas with our family forever.

I know he's in a better place, but we will miss him every day.

 
Mary Scott worked with Russell Groff on several book projects.  She owns Serendipity Farm and Studio in Suffolk, Virginia.  A specialist in the 18th-century textiles of the American colonies, she teaches and lectures at weaving guilds, museums, and colleges.

Further Resources

• For more information about Russell Groff’s life, read the profile produced by Jane Patrick and Katy Bright Banks, published in Handwoven May/June 1990, (pages 80-81).
• To hear an audio interview with Russell Groff, listen to WeaveCast 5.5: BSG Confidential.