Ralph Gene Rhudy

  Noted events in his life were:

• Census: Grayson Co, VA - 1930 Federal Census, 22 Apr 1930, Grayson Co, VA. ⁴ Elk Creek, Dist 1, Sheet 9B, Stamped Pg 92

• Obituary: Roanoke Time: Roanaoke Co., VA. Ralph Gene Rhudy, 90, of Raleigh, N.C., died on Saturday, October 23, 2010. He was born on July 19, 1920, in Comers Rock, Va., to the late Clay W. Rhudy and Madge Williams Rhudy.

He left us gently, with memories to treasure of a life well-lived. Survivors include his beloved and devoted wife of nearly 64 years from Elk Creek, Va., "Johnny Bess" (Hale) Rhudy; children, Jean Rhudy Steusloff and husband, Tom, of Roswell, Ga., Stephen Clay Rhudy and wife, Jane, of Raleigh, N.C., Barbara Hale Rhudy and husband, Christopher Sammond, of Homer, N.Y., and Timothy Clark Rhudy, of Cleveland, Ohio; grandchildren, Jay Randall Steusloff, of Wilmington, N.C., Garrett Rhudy Steusloff, of Atlanta, Ga., Mary Emerson Rhudy and Katherine Austin Rhudy, both of Raleigh, N.C.; and his niece, Sarah Arnold Gose and husband, Jim, of Morristown, Tenn., and her family.

His sister, Muriel Rhudy Arnold, predeceased him.

Ralph earned his BSEE at University of Tennessee in 1942, entered the Navy and served as Engineer Officer on the destroyer escort U.S.S. Charles J. Kimmel, deployed in the Pacific war. After the war, he accepted employment at General Electric and worked primarily in the Schenectady, N.Y., motor businesses, developing liquid metal pumps for the first nuclear submarines, and insulation systems for hydroelectric power plants in the Pacific Northwest, among other projects. He was honored with the Philip L. Alger Award and designation as an IEEE Fellow. Ralph was a kind and quiet man with a keen mind and remarkable dry wit, highly respected and beloved by family, friends and colleagues. He was happy in his garden, and loved being in the mountains.

He and his wife played duplicate bridge with the same group for over 50 years. They also kept up with his UT fraternity brothers from Delta Sigma Phi and his Navy shipmates, as well as their childhood friends and their immediate and extended families. The prospect of dementia in old age was familiar to Ralph; he accepted it with remarkable grace.

A small private graveside service will be conducted in the Comers Rock Cemetery and a celebration of his life will be planned for the Spring. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Alzheimer's Association .

Published in Roanoke Times on October 31, 2010

Ralph married Alverda Elizabeth Hale.