B.J. Russell poses next to an oil painting of historic Round Pond, a waterfront scene located about a mile from where he is standing in his Round Pond home. Two years after leasing King Ro Market, Rusell said he is enjoying life as a part time contractor and full time grandfather. (Sherwood Olin photo)
There’s local and then there is B.J. Russell local.
In the crush of summer time, whenever Russell wants to get away, he and his wife Lori Crook can always decamp for their summer home, a seaside cottage in Pemaquid about six miles from their home in Round Pond.
As far as Russell is concerned, there is rarely a good reason to leave the Bristol peninsula.
“I’m perfectly content,” Russell said. “We just love it here. We love it at the cottage. We’ll move to the cottage next summer, and we’ll stay there for two months, three months, whatever’s comfortable.”
As the proprietor of the King Ro Market for almost 30 years, Russell held one of the highest profile jobs in Round Pond. Since leasing the building and business to Steve Brackett in 2023, Russell is enjoying life away from the store that defined his life for the previous three decades.
These days, Russell works as he pleases taking on a variety of small contracting jobs. Now 68, he has the luxury of being able to pick and choose his projects, and he sometimes gets to work with Crook, The Lincoln County News Round Pond correspondent.
“Lori likes to garden, so we do fall cleanups, spring cleanups,
outside together,” Russell said. “We built a big lawn last summer down in Moxie Cove using my backhoe. You know, a little bit of carpentry, painting, whatever. I work three, four hours a day and I’m happy as hell.”
Although he has long been associated with Round Pond, Russell’s family is from North Newcastle, where he spent the first seven years of his life. On a Sunday drive in 1965, his mother saw the house she wanted in Round Pond; today, it is home to Round Pond Green, an assisted living facility at 1410 Route 32.
Within a year, Russell’s parents, Bill and Frances Russell, moved their three children to Bristol, renovating their new home to their liking. The home was large enough for the Russells to take in aging veterans as boarders.
In 1970, Bill Russell purchased the building that houses King Ro Market, opening the store in its current location the following year. Built in 1874, the building has housed a store of some kind almost continuously up until 1968, when the store was shuttered following the death of then-owner, Artel Bryant.
Looking back on his childhood, Russell said growing up in the area in the late 1960s and early 1970s was a wonderful experience. There were a lot of young families around and it seemed everybody was a musician, he said.
“Growing up in North Newcastle was a great experience,” Russell said. “I look back on that fondly, and I still have a lot of friends from up there. But when we moved down here, it was music in the air. There were a couple of garage, rock and roll bands, and I think that’s where I developed my love for music.”
As a fan and a performer, music has been a through line in Russell’s life. He vividly recalled watching The Beatles on television, transfixed. For some reason even he doesn’t understand, as a child, Russell gravitated to the drums, a hobby his parents encouraged, buying him a functional drum set before he was out of grade school. Russell went on to join his first working band at the age of 12.
Coaching up the next generation of Lincoln County drummers, B.J. Russell huddles with his grandson Harris Abboott in Russell’s Round Pond studio. As a fan and a performer, music has been a huge part of Russell’s life for almost 60 years. (Sherwood Olin photo)
“I have to say, my parents were very indulgent because they let me play,” Russell said. “Of course, it’s a big house, but I could play the drums anytime I wanted to in that house. I had our old record players playing as loud as they would go, so I could play along to them, and they never said a word. They always encouraged me.”
While he was never interested in playing in the school band, B.J. Russell played in rock bands all through his teen years, putting his drum sticks down long enough to enlist in the Air Force in 1978. After basic training in Biloxi, Miss., Russell spent the majority of his service stationed at Fort McDowell in Sacramento, Calif., where he worked on aeronautic landing and guidance systems.
“I wanted to learn electronics, and in my head I thought that was probably going to be the best education I could get,” Russell said. “I was good in math, so it was natural.”
Russell had a corporate job offer waiting for him when he mustered out of the service in 1982, one that would have capitalized on his electronics training. Instead, he opted to return to Lincoln County.
Settling in Newcastle, Russell and his first wife opened The Homestead in 1982. The Homestead was a rock-n-roll nightclub located
Pond Rangers, a classic rock trio led by Renys President John Reny on guitar and vocals and Jimmy Nelson on bass. The Rangers were very active locally for about 10 years before calling it a day in 2007.
These days, Russell still keeps his hand in making music with friends when he can or sitting in at one of King Ro’s Monday night music jams. Starting the weekly jams at the store in 2009 is one of Russell’s favorite decisions from his time operating King Ro, he said. Held out outdoors in good weather and inside during cold weather months, the long-running series continues today.
Russell said he appreciates the job Brackett is doing at King Ro. Russell knew when he took over the business he had to expand offerings, and Brackett has continued in the same vein, Russell said.
In June 2024, Brackett opened The Ro, a restaurant and bar area adjacent to the King Ro store.
“Where Steve is taking it now is just a progression,” Russell said. “We could kind of see it needed to go that way, but we were just at the end of our tenure. I didn’t have the energy to take it to the next step. I might not have done exactly what he did, but I knew we needed to.”
These days, Russell is still in good condition, a fact he credits to staying active. He discovered an interest in running while he was serving in the Air Force and he was an avid runner for years. He completed four marathons, including the Boston Marathon, and entered many local 5K and 10K races over the years.
Coached by a friend, Russell brought his love of running to Lincoln Academy, where he coached the cross-country team from 2006-2015. These days, Russell’s body won’t take the pavement pounding a runner endures, but he still likes to hit the trails for a run two or three times a week, he said.
Looking ahead, Russell said he is looking forward to summer; he has some work lined up on Louds Island that Crook may help him with.
There is something special about island life in general, Russell said. Of course, nothing could be special enough to entice him to leave Round Pond.
“No, never,” Russell said before thinking for a minute. “Well I shouldn’t say that. We do go to Pemaquid.”
(Do you have a suggestion for a “Characters of the County” subject? Email info@lcnme.com with the subject line “Characters of the County” with the name and contact information of your nominee.)
