Russell M. Coombs, retired Rutgers law professor emeritus and former chief counsel to the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, has died at 84

Russell M. Coombs, 84, of Delanco, retired professor emeritus at Rutgers Law School, former chief counsel to the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, deputy chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Criminal Laws and Procedures, deputy attorney general of Pennsylvania, assistant attorney general of Massachusetts, and veteran, died Sunday, June 5, of liver and kidney failure at his home.

Described by his family as “a serious and driven intellectual perfectionist,” Professor Coombs was an expert in criminal law, organized crime, interstate child custody disputes, and parental kidnapping. Over his decades of government service in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., he conceived and drafted the federal Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act of 1980 and participated in the creation of the federal Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 and the Pennsylvania Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970.

He contributed large portions of the legislation and explained its significance and application to lawmakers and staff in meetings and hearings. He also testified before a U.S. Senate committee about the Criminal Code Reform Act of 1979 and the Missouri House of Representatives in 1971 about self-incrimination and conspiracy bills.

In a 1987 hearing before a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on criminal justice, Professor Coombs outlined the danger of official corruption and organized crime and explained why he considered legislation to combat it so important to the public. “If the lawmakers fail to provide strict laws to control such crime, then the lawmakers send an additional message to the public that white-collar crime is trivial, tolerable, even acceptable,” he said.

“He had a sense of justice,” said his daughter, Sheila Coombs Branyan. “He had faith in the legal system to protect our way of life. He was so passionate about the law.”

Professor Coombs joined Rutgers University in 1979 and became an associate professor in 1982. He served on several faculty committees; taught courses on evidence, children and the law, and legal research and writing; and ran seminars on interstate child custody litigation and organized crime. He retired in 2014.

He published many law review articles, and was on the board of editors for the American Bar Association’s Family Law Quarterly. He served on panels and committees, lectured about law around the country, and appeared on TV talk shows.

Born April 18, 1938, in Des Moines, Iowa, Professor Coombs grew up in Wichita, Kan., and earned a bachelor’s degree at Stanford University in 1961. He served several years as an officer in the Navy in Hawaii after college and, aspiring to a federal judgeship, graduated from Harvard Law School in 1966.

He married Virginia Anne Haynes in 1961, and they had daughter Sheila, and sons Thomas and Jesse. After a divorce, he married Rosalie Bradley in 1996. In addition to his government assignments, he was a law associate at Choate, Hall, & Stewart in Boston, and his father’s firm in Wichita.

Professor Coombs was a standout golfer at Stanford in the late 1950s and later a longtime member of the Overbrook Golf Club. He even chipped in three birdies as he and Overbrook pro Stu Ingraham won the 1999 Philadelphia PGA’s Pro Senior-Am Scratch championship.

He sang, played guitar, and acted in dozens of stage productions in college. He was good at chess and billiards, liked to be silly when family was around, and gave out “wickedly witty” homemade birthday cards.

He worked 30 years as a part-time ski instructor in Colorado and New Mexico, and often took family and friends on ski trips to his favorite slopes. Most of all, his family said, “he excelled at unconditional love.”

“He was always close to us and involved in our lives,” his daughter said. “He was unwavering as a father.”

In addition to his wife and children, Professor Coombs is survived by 12 grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and other relatives. His former wife, brother, and sister died earlier.

A celebration of his life is to be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, July 21, at Overbrook Golf Club, 799 Godfrey Rd., Villanova, Pa. 19085.