Robert "Bob" Rudman
Robert “Bob” Rudman was one of eight children born to Mary and Theodore Rudman and was the fifth of seven sons born in South Chicago. A sister, not the youngest of the siblings, was born in upstate Michigan. Bob was born on Oct. 29, 1928. He died Nov. 23,2020. His father was born in Croatia and immigrated to America in 1905. His mother also was of Croatian heritage, but born in Chicago.
At the age of eight, Bob’s parents moved to southwest Michigan and later to upstate Manistee County, where they spent some 20 memorable years — long enough to call it home. All seven sons joined the military following their high school graduation. The two eldest, having joined the U.S. Navy in 1938, survived several battles in the Pacific during World War II. Bob graduated from high school in 1946 and received a Navy scholarship to attend (then) Michigan State College. His four years there were split by four years of military service, flying twin-engine patrol planes for the Navy, operating out of Virginia and the Panama Canal Zone. Bob left the Navy in 1952 as a patrol plane commander and with the rank of lieutenant (junior grade).
Having completed college in 1954 with a degree in civil engineering, Bob joined the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Portland, Ore. During the next 30 years, he was actively involved in the construction management of five hydroelectric dams in Oregon, Montana and Washington. While working on his first dam project (Hills Creek Dam near Oakridge, Ore.) he met and married Lenore Levig of Bonners Ferry, Idaho. Sons Alan and Norman, and daughter Susan were born during this 15 year union. While working as resident engineer on his last dam project (expansion of dam and powerhouse at Chief Joseph Dam near Bridgeport, Wash.) he met and married Karen Schroder of Bridgeport, adding Karen’s son, Rick, and daughters, Debra and Lori, to the updated family tree.
As federal hydro dam construction in the northwest fell into a lull in the 1980s, Bob was assigned to managing the construction of the high West Seattle Bridge. That very essential project was completed in 1983, restoring convenient arterial linkage between Seattle and West Seattle.
Bob retired from the Corps of Engineers in 1984, but soon returned to construction management for Art Anderson Associates of Bremerton, Wash. Over a period of nine years, he typically led onsite management staffs for the construction of the large Food and Drug Administration laboratory north of Bellevue, Wash., and for the interior demolition and modernization of the 10-story Old Federal Building in downtown Seattle.
Bob and Karen retired from their respective professions in spring 1993, having lived in Bellevue for 30 years before relocating to East Wenatchee, Wash., in 2011.
Arrangements are by Chapel of the Valley, East Wenatchee, Wash.
