Rune Ruud

Rune (Ron) Carl Ruud, age 91, of Eau Claire, passed away on Thursday, March 19. Ron was born on December 24, 1923, in Stockholm, Sweden. He received his education in Stockholm and graduated from Stockholm University with a degree in Business Administration and a minor in Chemistry, after which he was inducted into the mandatory military service in Sweden. He volunteered to serve in a unit on the border of Sweden and Norway during World War II, bringing families in occupied Norway to safety. By the end of the war, 60,000 Norwegians were helped across the border into neutral Sweden.

Ron came to the U.S. in February of 1947 as a management trainee for a Swedish paper company. He had an immigration visa and an American sponsor in New York, Stanley Blankenship, who was to guide him in his graduate studies and work.

In 1948, Ron came to Cornell, Wisconsin, to study a new pulping process being done at Cornell Paperboard Products Company. He embraced life in Cornell and became active in community affairs and sports programs, where he met his future father-in-law, Dr. E.J. Mittermeyer, and his family. He and Ann Mittermeyer were married in January 23, 1954, and they raised their children in Cornell. Ron worked as a chemist and production manager for Cornell Paperboard, which later merged with the St. Regis Paper Company. He was an only child and loved the joy and fun of the large family of 10 siblings he had married into. He became an American citizen in 1955.

Ron later pursued training in property assessment and appraisal at UW-Eau Claire. Following the closing of the paper company in Cornell in 1972, he moved his family to Eau Claire, where he accepted an assessor's position for the City of Eau Claire. He retired in January 1988 as City Assessor of the City of Eau Claire.

Ron had joined the Masonic Lodge in 1956 in Cornell and became its Master in 1959 when he also joined the consistory in Eau Claire. He joined the Mehara Shrine Club and Zor Shriners in 1972, after moving his family to Eau Claire. He is a Masonic member of Sanctuary Lodge 112 and Scottish Rite Valley of Eau Claire. Ron proudly held Fishskin #1 in SPEALE (the Society for the Prevention of the Extinction of the Art of Lutefisk Eating) Eau Claire Lodge, which was started by Lloyd O. Johnson and Ron in the early 1970s. The original SPEALE Lodge was founded in Cornell in 1949.

Ron is survived by his wife of 61 years, Ann; daughter Karen of Madison, WI; son Kurt, of Destin, FL; and granddaughter Melissa, of Madison, WI; many other sisters- and brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, and his cousin's daughter and children. He is preceded in death by his parents, his infant son John, and his dear Swedish cousin Gunnel Schroeder.

A memorial service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family would prefer that memorials be given to Feed My People Food Bank at 2610 Alpine Road, Eau Claire, WI 54703.