Dick Ruddell - A Long Life, Well Lived

G. Richard "Dick" Ruddell, 96 of Spearfish died surrounded by his family on Friday evening, February 3, 2012 at the David M. Dorsett Health Care in Spearfish.

A celebration of Dick's life was held at 11:00 A.M, Monday, February 6, 2012 at the United Church of Christ in Spearfish. Family burial took place at Rose Hill Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers memorials may be directed to benefit Spearfish Youth Baseball and Hospice of the Northern Hills.

Born in Roanoke VA on October 18, 1915, Dick Ruddell was raised in Bluefield, W. Va, as the eldest of four children. He was an outstanding high school scholar and athlete, playing all-state basketball and lettering in baseball. Although offered a full college scholarship, he instead went to work as an apprentice optician, helping to support his widowed mother and younger siblings. He met his wife, Jo- Marie Thompson, in 1937 when she was the Religious Education Director at Dick's boyhood church, and diligently wooed her away from her physician boyfriend by quietly leaving an apple a day in her mailbox. They were engaged in 1937.

Dick was drafted during World War II and performed alternative service to his country as a conscientious objector on religious grounds. He served with other Quakers in the Civilian Public Service (CPS) as a forest fire fighter and health worker at Byberry State Mental Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also served as a volunteer in medical research protocols, including a hepatitis study for which he and the other research subjects received military commendations.

Dick and Jo-Marie married in 1944 and lived in Philadelphia until the end of the war. In 1946, they volunteered with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the world-wide service organization for the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). They were assigned to China on a post-war relief project where Dick "worked the docks" in Shanghai, supervising the distribution of relief supplies to war victims. He also reconnected with baseball by umpiring games between military and other teams.

When the couple returned to the United States with their one-year old daughter, they directed a project for AFSC called Interns in Industry based in South Philadelphia. In 1951, the family, now with a new infant and two toddler daughters, moved to Rapid City to serve another term with AFSC. They helped establish a Mayor's Commission on Human Relations, conducted social justice research, and directed work camps for young volunteers on Pine Ridge Reservation.

After moving to Spearfish in 1954, Dick entered BHSU, taking courses while working full time with the South Dakota Lung Association to eradicate and prevent tuberculosis, particularly among Lakota populations. Upon earning his degree, he continued his career at the Lung Association, eventually becoming the chief executive officer for the state association.

Dick continued his love affair with baseball, umpiring for BHSU teams, the minor Basin League in Sturgis and Rapid City, and countless amateur and youth teams in Spearfish and state-wide. He took great care with his formal uniform and his daughters always knew that spring had arrived when the cleats came out for cleaning and the white shirts for ironing. He never skimped on his professional appearance, whether it be a minor league or local Little League game. In his later years, the town named a ball field after him and he full-filled a long-held dream by saving, over time, to sponsor the baseball press box which bears the family name at the community athletic field complex.

Dick assumed leadership roles in the United Church of Christ including teaching the Senior High Sunday School Class and serving as the lay moderator of the statewide UCC. He was one of the founding members of the Spearfish Investment Club.

After retiring from the Lung Association, Dick devoted his energies to many civic and volunteer activities. He joined the optimist Club, participated in the Senior Olympics, prepared income tax returns for seniors, was co-treasurer of his church, served on the Spearfish City Council and began many years of service on the board of the Northern Hills Training Center.

Unwavering in his passion for baseball, Dick umpired into his seventies and would drop everything if a young player in uniform and cleats stopped by the house to say he was needed for a game. To support the SD Amateur Baseball Association, he became a fixture outside of Safeway and other busy spots around town, selling thousands of raffle tickets to every breathing soul who happened by. No one could refuse him.

A life-long Democrat and champion of the less fortunate, Dick supported many candidates and campaigns and took great pride when the family home on Kansas Street became filled with boxes of bumper stickers, literature and buttons as campaign headquarters for the latest Democratic hopeful -- from George McGovern to Tom Daschle. One of his proudest moments was attending President Clinton's inauguration in Washington, DC as Senator Daschle's personal guest.

Both Dick and Jo-Marie supported and promoted local visual and performing arts, raising funds and donating time and their energies over the years. He donated the modern sound system at Matthew's Opera House in his beloved Jo-Marie's memory.

Dick's caring nature, innate wisdom and good humor touched the lives of countless others, from the many children who called him "Uncle Dick" to the steady stream of international students who visited or lived in the Ruddell home, Training Center clients, fellow congregants, and the untold numbers of baseball players, umpires and fans.

He was a generous, humble man, authentic to the core and to his family and friends, embodied a favorite Biblical passage from the Sixth Chapter of Micah:
"He hath showed Thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of Thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God?"

Online condolences may be written at www.fidler-isburgfuneralchapels.com