Richard A. Rudders ’59

Dick died peacefully Feb. 27, 2018, in Barnstable Village, Mass., of Parkinson’s disease with his wife, Joan, and three children at his side. A clinical and academic physician who contributed to cancer research, Dick was 79 years old.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Dick attended James Madison High School before coming to Princeton, where he majored in chemistry, ate at Terrace, and roomed as a senior with Bob Messing. He then spent four years in medical school at Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons. Moving on to University of North Carolina Memorial Hospital as a house officer (resident physician/surgeon), he met Joan Piland, a UNC graduate nurse, who would become his wife of 52 years. A two-year tour in the Navy Medical Corps at a small base in Maine followed, during which time he fell in love with the wilderness of northeastern Maine and the waters of New England.

Dick spent his medical career at the New England Medical Center and then the VA Hospital in Boston. He found time to teach students at the Boston University and Tufts medical schools when he wasn’t fishing the waters off Cape Cod, where his ashes will be committed.

He is survived by his wife, Joan; sister Allissa Weis; children David, Jonathan, and Susan; and seven grandchildren. We have sent condolences.