Russell Craig
‘Russ’ Capps, a longtime resident of
Kensington, Md., who worked for most of
his career as a chief financial officer
and chief operating officer for large
non-profit organizations and who served
many years as a singer and board member
of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington,
D.C., died Aug. 19 at the age of 54.
His friend Michael Hill said the cause
of death was complications associated
with a heart attack.
A write-up about his life provided by
Hill on behalf of Capps’ family says
that since 1997, when he first met the
man who later became his husband,
Kenneth Yazge, in Rehoboth Beach, Del.,
the two shared more than two decades
together, among other things, “hosting
some of the most incredible dinner
parties” and traveling with a large
circle of friends and loved ones.
“The number of people who claimed Russ
as their best friend is countless,” the
write-up sent to the Washington Blade by
Hill says. “He had an intensity for
those he loved and would go to the ends
of the earth to help anyone who needed
him,” it says.
The write up notes that for much of his
adult life Capps was a “bedrock leader”
for the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington,
D.C. Among other things, he served as
the chorus’s treasurer and on its board
of directors.
His deepest love, the write-up says, was
his 14-year stint as a member of the
chorus’s ensemble known as Potomac
Fever, with whom he traveled for singing
engagements and performed at the first
inaugural concert for President Barack
Obama and later at the first LGBT
reception at the Obama White House.
According to the write-up, Capps most
recently worked as COO for the American
Foreign Service Association. Prior to
that he served as CFO for the
Construction Specifications Institute
and held similar positions at the
American Dental Education Association
and the D.C.-based Center for
Development & Population Activities
He also served for 12 years as CFO at
the Association of Corporate Counsel and
was active for many years as a leader
and panelist for the American Society of
Association Executives, the write-up
says.
Capps received a bachelor’s degree in
business administration from Virginia’s
Radford University and was a graduate of
Rebert E. Lee High School in
Springfield, Va.
The write-up says Capps and Yazge, who
married in 2013, “saw each other through
life’s great ups and downs, including
renovating their Kensington house,
selling and starting businesses and new
jobs, and buying a second home in
Rehoboth Beach, an escape that they fled
to any time they could and one that they
shared generously with family and
friends.”
Capps is survived by his husband,
Kenneth M. Yazge; his brother, Robert L.
Capps, Jr.; his niece, Brittany Capps;
and his nephew, Stephen Capps. He is
predeceased by his parents, Robert and
Mary.
A celebration of Capps’ life was held at
Foundry United Methodist Church in D.C.
on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2019, at 1 p.m.
The write-up provided by Hill says
donations in lieu of flowers can be made
to the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington,
D.C. at
gmcw.org.