Richard Russell of Dow Theory Letters Passes Away at 91

The financial newsletter business lost one of its greats on November 21st.

Richard Russell, who founded the Dow Theory Letters in 1958 passed away amongst family in his home.

Dow Theory Letters was the longest investment letter in the industry continuously written by the same person.

For those who didn’t know or know of Richard, you really missed out. He was one of my favorite analysts, writers and thinkers.

The Dow Theory Letters started out in the 1950s with an ad in the Wall Street Journal that received a big response. After that, every ten days to three weeks he would mail out a newsletter. Yes, mail! In today’s age it is hard to imagine the difficulty of writing that regularly to subscribers around the world.

In 1991, Dow Theory Letters began publishing online, which allowed Richard to write daily. This he did until about a week before his passing.

I remember the first time I got to meet Richard in person. It was at a Casey Research conference in which he was a speaker about four years ago. Being a longtime subscriber, and with him rarely (if ever) being photographed in public or on things like Youtube or TV, I had this image of what he looked like from the one postage stamp sized, black & white photo of him which was always on his website or newsletter (pictured right).

Then, a frail old man walked onto the stage and I was shocked. I turned to David Galland, who used to run Casey Research back then and said, “Wow, some of these speakers need to update their photos!”

David responded to me that he had recently had a stroke, or some similar health issue.

I was shocked he even came to speak in his condition. But, as he began to speak into the microphone it was clear that while his body was withering his mind was still as sharp as a tack. And he continued to give an impassioned speech full of all his usual wit and wisdom.

As someone who is 44 and finds writing every day to be a lot of work I can’t even imagine still doing this nearly 50 years from now, which is what he was doing!

He was truly an icon. Many say he started the financial newsletter business. And he was widely followed and highly respected. Aside from that, though, was that he was one of the best and most imaginative writers around… in the finance business or not. He’d often tell stories that would leave you glued to every word… I always looked forward to hearing his thoughts on not just the markets but on life and I’d often not read his newsletter once I received it and set it aside for when I had some proper alone time (often in the past with a glass of wine or a fine scotch) to enjoy it.

When it came to the markets he was very much aligned with us here at The Dollar Vigilante as this interview from July of this year shows:

I have said that in future years, the standard of living of nations throughout the world will decline. But out of the ashes of a deflated world will come a better world than ever. For my subscribers, I continue to advocate holding physical silver and gold, and getting ready for difficult times.

There’s been a huge move into the US dollar, in a flight to safety. As I see it, the dollar is now overbought and overloved. I trust my subscribers are out of the market and holding only physical silver and gold.

For a man who has ridden through every bull and every bear market for the last seven decades it says A LOT that he now advocated people not walk, but run, from the stock markets and into precious metals.

It is sad that he didn’t live to see his most latest prediction come true… and it will come true… but we want to thank him posthumously for the decades of amazing and tireless work he put in and to give our condolences to his close family and friends.

We all have to go at some point and you can’t say that Mr. Russell didn’t give it a far better go of it than most.

Here, at The Dollar Vigilante, we owe a part of what we do to Richard Russell, him being one of the trailblazers of this industry. And while we can’t fill his shoes… no one can… we will endeavor to carry on, in part, his tradition of writing often and regularly about just how corrupt the financial system is and try to find ways for our readers to not only survive but profit from it.

R.I.P. Richard Russell.

Originally Appeared At The Dollar Vigilante