Russell Stone: key obituary facts
Is Russell Stone dead? Yes. Russell Stone died on October 22, 2026, at age 103.
Cause of death: Russell Stone's cause of death has not been publicly confirmed.
What was Russell Stone known for?
He was a New Zealand historian.
More about Russell Stone
Born: 7 April 1923.
Place of birth: Auckland.
Gender: male.
Occupation: historian, academic.
Nationality: New Zealand.
Education: University of Auckland.
Employer: University of Auckland.
Awards: Fellow of Auckland War Memorial Museum.
Also known as: R. C. J. Stone, Stone, R. C. J., Russell Cyril James Stone, Russell C.J. Stone, R.C.J. Stone.
Russell Stone, a New Zealand historian, author and academic, died on October 22, 2026, aged 103.
Born Russell Cyril James Stone in Mount Eden, Auckland, on April 7, 1923, he attended Mount Albert Grammar School before studying at Auckland University College, now the University of Auckland. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1945, then completed a master’s degree with first-class honours in 1949.
After working as a secondary-school teacher, Stone joined the University of Auckland’s history department in 1964 and later became professor emeritus there. In 2012, the New Zealand Herald described him as the leading authority on Auckland’s history; he had written nine books on the city’s early history. Much of his scholarship focused on John Logan Campbell. Stone published a two-volume life of Campbell, beginning with Young Logan Campbell in 1982 and followed by The Father and his Gift: John Logan Campbell’s Later Years in 1987. He also brought Campbell’s long out-of-print memoirs, first published in 1881, to readers again in Poenamo: Romance and Reality of Antipodean Life in the Infancy of a New Colony. Stone was a Fellow of Auckland War Memorial Museum.