Lanning Russell is a retired high school teacher of Economics and History. He has a checkered employment history and is especially pleased with himself for having participated successfully in many solo challenges – marathons, summiting glaciated mountain peaks, epic bike rides and solitary treks into the wilderness. His lifelong achievement is starting a family late in life and for that he thanks his wife and children. Lanning lives with his wife, Margaret, in Portland. They are both transplants from the eastern megalopolis.