Dr. Olive Ruth Russell was born in Delta, Ontario on July 9, 1897. She graduated from the University of Toronto in 1931 and from the University of Edinburgh in 1935 going on to teach at various schools and colleges from 1920 to 1942. During World War II, she served as a personnel selection officer with the Canadian Women's Army Corps, 1942-1945, attaining the rank of Captain. From 1945 to 1947 she was an executive assistant to the director general of the Rehabilitation Branch, Dept. of Veterans' Affairs.

Dr. Russell was a Canadian delegate to the Inter-continental Conference of the National Council of Women, 1946; a fraternal delegate from the World Federation of United Nations Associations to the Conference of the International Federation of University Women, 1947, and a member of the board, National Commission for Beneficient Euthanasia, U.S.A. She was Assistant Professor of Psychology, Winthrop College, S.C., 1947-1949, and Professor and Chairman of the Dept. of Psychology, Western Maryland College, 1949-1962. She authored Freedom to Die: Moral and Legal Aspects of Euthanasia (1975) and campaigned vigorously in favour of euthanasia. She was also the author of numerous articles on euthanasia, education and psychology.

Russell died on May 25, 1979 at her home in Chevy Chase at the age of 81.