A pioneering figure in Centre County and Pennsylvania politics who served as role model to generations of women has died.
Ruth Rudy, a trailblazer who served as Centre County prothonotary before being elected to seven terms in the state House of Representatives, died on Friday at Centre Care nursing home in College Township. She was 87.
Born and raised on the family farm near Millheim, Ruth Alice Corman was the youngest of 10 children who lost their mother when she was 9 years old. She was in some ways, she said in a state House Oral History Project interview, “raised by committee” by her older sisters before graduating from Penns Valley Area High School.
After earning certification as a radiological technician from the Carnegie Institute in Ohio, she worked in Cleveland for several years before moving back to Centre County. She married C. Guy Rudy in 1956 and together they had four children, one of whom died in infancy. She worked for the Bell Telephone Company, attended Penn State for two years and became rural development coordinator and later legislative director for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
Before becoming politically active, Rudy was already deeply invested in serving her local community through the Centre Area Health Council, Child Development Council of Centre County and as an original board members of the Penns Valley Health and Welfare Association.
But politics had always captured Rudy’s interest.
“I was always interested in politics from the time I took a history class in probably sixth or seventh grade, because I realized that someone who… was an elected leader could influence the world, could change the world,” Rudy said in the House Oral History Project interview. “I realized that at an early age, so I always wanted to be some type of a leader. But coming from a farm in central Pennsylvania and being a woman, it was like wishing that I could just all of a sudden go to the moon or Mars.”
Ruth and Guy Rudy, though, both became leaders of the Centre County Democratic Party in the early 1970s after taking part in the PA Public Affairs Leadership Program at Penn State. In 1975, Ruth Rudy began to realize her public service leadership aspirations when she was elected Centre County Prothonotary and Clerk of Courts, a position she would hold for seven years.
In 1982, Rudy was elected to the first of what would be seven terms as state representative for the 171st House District representing parts of eastern Centre County and Mifflin County, winning as a Democrat in a heavily Republican area. When she first took office, Rudy was one of just seven women in the entire 253-member General Assemble (House and Senate).
During her 14 years in office, Rudy made her mark. She authored 11 pieces of legislation that became law, focusing much of her efforts on issues related to agriculture and equality for women.
Rudy “was instrumental in promoting improvements to the Route 322 highway,” according to her obituary. She helped establish a loan forgiveness program for teachers who taught in
distressed rural or urban school districts. She sponsored legislation that funded the Commonwealth’s Rural Leadership Program. And she was also the prime sponsor on legislation dubbed the “potty parity bill” that garnered significant media attention and led to a 1990 law requiring restrooms be provided for women on an equitable basis, according to the Pa. House Archives.
“I was able to puncture the ‘good ole boys club’ of politics to have a voice for women, rural communities, and to truly work for the people,” Rudy told the House Archives of how she’d like her time in office to be remembered.
Rudy chose not to seek reelection to an eighth term in 1996, instead running for U.S. Congress in Pennsylvania’s 5th District. The campaign was unsuccessful, but Rudy continued her work in politics and public service for years to come.
The year after her congressional run, Rudy served as a representative to Yemen for the Democratic National Institute of Washington, D,C. For 28 years, she was an elected member of the Democratic National Committee, including time as chair of the Women’s Caucus and four years as a member of the executive committee.
She attended every Democratic National Convention from 1972 to 2012, serving as a delegate nine times, and the hats that she made and wore to two of those are preserved at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Rudy also served on Gov. Ed Rendell’s transition team in 2003, and she continued her public service locally in numerous ways, including as Potter Township auditor for six years.
Among her many recognitions, Rudy received the Outstanding Woman Elected Official and Sen. Jeanette Riebman Outstanding Woman of Pa. awards from the Pennsylvania Federation of Democratic Women, the Pa. Association of Conservation Districts’ Legislator Award and was named Woman of the Year in 2005 by the National Federation of Democratic Women, an organization she led as president from 1987-89.
Rudy also had an entrepreneurial spirit, getting a patent for a device she invented to shield the face while applying hair spray, which she manufactured and sold herself, even appearing on QVC to promote the shield.
With her husband, who died in March 2024, Rudy was a major benefactor of the Penns Valley Area Museum Association, and its Rudy-Corman Building in Aaronsburg is named in their honor. They also donated the electronic sign for the Grace United Methodist Church in Centre Hall, where they were charter members.
Community and family were both priorities for Rudy.
“As a dedicated public figure, Ruth passionately sought to enhance her local communities and residents’ well-being and nationally used her political leadership to strive for equal opportunities for women,” according to her obituary. “She was equally focused on building strong family relationships, creating lasting traditions and always prioritizing her days to be present and supportive at every event from weddings to graduations, showers, reunions, school sports and church activities for her large extended family.”
Rudy was “was wonderful public servant and community leader,” the Centre County Democratic committee wrote in a Facebook post.
State Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Rush Township, called her “a mentor and a friend.” Tor McCartney, Conklin’s chief of staff and host of the Tor Michaels Show, wrote that she was “a trailblazer for women, devoted to her family and a true friend.”
“She was a Democratic icon and trailblazer for women in politics,” Centre County Democratic State Committee member Laura Shadle wrote. “I admired her so much.”
Rudy is survived by two daughters, three grandchildren, four great-grandchildren and more than 150 nieces and nephews.
A viewing will be held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday at Grace United Methodist Church in Centre Hall, followed immediately by a funeral service at noon.
