Community, Patient Impact

“A Real Pistol:" Gretchen Russell’s Gift to Support the Future of Cancer Research and Care

A vintage, black-and-white photo of a woman with short hair and an off-the-shoulder dress.

An estate gift from Gretchen Russell (above) to the Friends of Dartmouth Cancer Center will be used to advance both research and patient services at Dartmouth Cancer Center.

Published: 
By Jerem Martin
2 min read

A few years before she died, Gretchen Russell asked her longtime friend Jim Langhans a simple question: Would he sell her house after she was gone?

“I said, ‘Gretchen, I’ll do anything you want,’” Langhans recalls.

He assumed she was asking for help with a future real estate transaction. Only later did he realize she was really asking whether he would serve as executor of her estate.

The request was a sign of the trust that had grown between them over nearly four decades of friendship. Langhans first met Russell when he rented an apartment above her garage in Woodstock, Vermont. In the years that followed, he became one of the people she relied on most, helping her with projects around the house and remaining a steady presence in her life.

After Russell shared her estate documents with Langhans, he read her will and was “blown away” by what he discovered: Russell had quietly arranged substantial gifts for the causes she cared about most, including what would eventually become a gift of more than $464,000 to the Friends of Dartmouth Cancer Center.

Touched by her generosity, Langhans went to see her.

“I sat down and said, ‘Gretchen, I’m so proud of you,’” he recalls.

The response was pure Gretchen. Despite giving Langhans every reason to read her will, she bristled at the idea that he now knew the plans she had kept so private—and she let him know it in her usual fiery prose.

“Here I am almost crying,” Langhans says, laughing, “and she’s yelling at me. She was quite a package. A real pistol.”

The exchange remains one of his favorite memories because it captured who she was—one who cared deeply about others, but who never sought recognition for it or trifled with sentimentality. She had, in Langhans’ words, “a very colorful vocabulary” and little patience for pretense. “She had no filter at all. You knew exactly where you stood with her,” he says. These qualities made Russell a beloved fixture in Woodstock and, ultimately, shaped the legacy she left behind.

The Woman Behind the Gift

Raised in Woodstock, Russell spent much of her life managing her family’s Hob Knobble Farm on Peterkin Hill. She was active in local organizations, supported community fundraisers, and helped more than a few people get their start in business. She loved horses, snowmobiling, entertaining friends, and the community she called home.

For all her candor, few of her friends had any idea about the philanthropic plans she had quietly put in place. They knew simply that she was financially comfortable and cared deeply about her community.

“It was a surprise to us all how generous she was because she wouldn’t have given you a clue,” Langhans says.

Russell was also a cancer survivor. After battling colon cancer decades earlier, she remained deeply appreciative of the care she had received at Dartmouth Cancer Center. Although cancer eventually returned, she faced it with the same grit and determination that characterized much of her life. Russell died in August 2024 at the age of 85, and with her estate gift to the Friends of Dartmouth Cancer Center, her generosity has supported clinical trials, patient and family services, and a newly established Russell Pilot Grant at Dartmouth Cancer Center.

The grant will provide seed funding for Cancer Center researchers to pursue innovative projects that may lead to future breakthroughs in cancer prevention, treatment, and survivorship. Through formative support, the gift also intends to help researchers secure larger sources of funding and accelerate discoveries that improve patient care.

Here I am almost crying and she’s yelling at me. She was quite a package. A real pistol.

Jim Langhans

For Langhans, serving as executor was both a responsibility and “an honor” that allowed him to carry out the wishes of a friend whose thoughtfulness reached farther than most people realized. In the years ahead, Langhans will receive updates about the research supported through the Russell Pilot Grant. He is excited to share them with the many friends who knew and loved Russell.

While those same friends still laugh about Russell’s colorful language, blunt observations, and refusal to sugarcoat anything, they also remember the qualities beneath the bravado: loyalty, generosity, and authenticity.

For someone known for speaking her mind, Russell made her biggest plans without fanfare. Going forward, her influence will be felt in laboratories, clinics, and waiting rooms across Dartmouth Cancer Center and its many locations throughout New Hampshire and Vermont, and beyond through ground-breaking research. Researchers, patients, and families alike will benefit from this quiet act from a woman who was loved by so many for being anything but.

To learn more about including Dartmouth Health or the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in your estate plans, contact the Office of Planned Giving at DH.Geisel.Planned.Giving@dartmouth.edu or 603-646-5858.

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