Russell John Leng, a longtime Middlebury resident, died on June 14, 2026. He was 88 years old.

Russ was born in New York City on May 21, 1938 to Percival King Leng and Judith Tennyson Leng. He grew up in Packanack Lake, NJ, and graduated from Wayne High School, before attending and graduating from Middlebury College in 1960. Russ then served two years of active duty as an ROTC officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, stationed on Taiwan. Following his tour of active service, he began graduate studies at American University’s School of International Service, from which he received his Ph.D in 1967. During his time in Washington at American, Russ also worked as a Foreign Policy Analyst for the Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress. In the fall of 1966 he returned to Middlebury to join the faculty in political science.

During his time on the Middlebury faculty, Russ was active in empirical research on international crises and the causes of war, with many publications in scholarly journals and in monographs, and several research grants from the National Science Foundation. He also served terms as chair of the Department of Political Science, chair of the Social Science Division, and as Dean of Sciences. He directed Middlebury’s Alumni College for a dozen years, and he helped pioneer Middlebury’s move into on-line learning for alumni.

Russ retired from regular teaching in June 2006. The following fall he joined the Board of Trustees at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, which had just been acquired by Middlebury College. He served on the Monterey board for four years, before moving to the Middlebury Board of Trustees for the next ten years. During this period he also continued to teach part-time at both institutions. Russ and his wife moved to EastView, a Middlebury retirement community, in 2022, where he joined the EastView Board of Directors.

Russ’s love of teaching continued throughout the remainder of his life, with regular life-long learning courses for adults at organizations in Middlebury as well as on Cape Cod.

Russ is survived by Priscilla Stevens Leng, his wife of 57 years, his son Steven Leng of Falmouth, Virginia, his daughter Susanna Leng of Santa Monica, California, his sister Judith Dailey of St. Paul, Minnesota, three grandsons, and two nieces.

A celebration of life will be scheduled for the early fall.