The Industry Mourns The Loss Of Russ Jones: Brilliant Friend To The Industry

Jun 26, 2021 - 10:36 pm 3 by
Filed Under Search News

Russ Jones

It is heartbreaking to have to write that Russ Jones has passed away unexpectedly on Thursday. He leaves behind a wife and three daughters. I've known Russ since my early days in SEO, he was one of the brightest minds in our space, he was also one of the friendliest and funny people you could know. His smarts, smile and humor made him so special.

I just cannot believe he won't be tweeting or that I won't see him at a conference again. Russ was currently working at System1 while also serving as Adjunct Search Scientist at Moz where he was Principal Search Scientist between 2015 and 2020. From 2005-2015 he was the CTO at Virante (now Hive Digital) where he also started this brilliant SEO blog named The Google Cache, he has been writing there since 2006 amongst other places.

I am not sure yet where there will be a fund set up, but please check this story in a few days for any updated links to a fund. He has such a beautiful family, I am so devastated for them. Yes, this is a huge loss for our industry, the SEO space, but he was such a family man.

I interviewed Russ for my vlog a while back and it was the parts before and after the interview that stood out most to me about him - although the interview was just great. You can watch it over here. We chatted about being religious; him Christian, myself Jewish and being in this tech space. We spoke about a lot of the passion in the SEO community and how finding humor and fun in it was important.

I am going to miss him so much.

Here is some of the early reaction of this horrible news:

Again, this is just a tiny fraction of the posts on Twitter - it just shows you how much Russ Jones meant to the industry. I really can't imagine how much he meant to his family and how they are doing now.

I am heart broken for his family, his wife, his three daughters and the industry for this loss. We are all praying your family durning this impossible time. You will be deeply missed.

Please check back later to see if a GoFundMe was added or some other method to help the family during this time.

Here is some more information on how to help:

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

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