Born on 8 April 1894 in Des Moines, Iowa, he attended Grinnell College for three years before transferring to Cornell.
After graduation he was hired by the engineering department of Crown Willamette Paper Company in Camas, Washington, but continued to fly in the Naval Reserve in San Diego.
After taking time off to be with his mother in Palo Alto, California, Russel moved to Portland, Oregon, and became general manager of Kern Clay Products and married Thyra Allen.
[1]: 2, 12–18 Russel Merrill and Roy Davis flew from Juneau to Seward over the Gulf of Alaska 1-3 Aug. 1925, the first to do so since the First aerial circumnavigation of 1924.
Yet, tragedy struck on 5 Sept. 1925, when the wind and tide destroyed the plane on the East Chugach Island beach they had made a forced landing the day before.
This one carried a badly-needed compressor for the New York-Alaska Company mine on Bear Creek at Nyac, near Bethel, Alaska.
A bronze plaque dedicated at its base reads, "TO THAT DAUNTLESS PIONEER OF THE AIR RUSSEL HYDE MERRILL WHOSE LIFE'S AIM WAS THE DEVELOPMENT OF AVIATION IN ALASKA SEPTEMBER 16, 1929."