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Celebration of life on Aug. 24 for Jon "Tony" Rudbach, Associate vice president for research and economic development at the University of Montana

A celebration of Tony’s life will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 24, at the home of Lucy France. For details please contact Lucy at (406) 829-6512, [email protected]; or Karl at (406) 756-7692, [email protected].

Jon A. “Tony” Rudbach of Hamilton and Bigfork passed away Aug. 10, 2008, at the Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

Tony was born in Long Beach, Calif., on Sept. 23, 1937, to John and Lola Rudbach. He was raised in Sierra Madre, Calif., and graduated from Pasadena High School. He received his bachelor of science degree in microbiology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1959 and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1964. Tony later received his master’s of business administration from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in 1984.

Tony met his wife Inge while at Berkeley and married her in 1959 in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 1964 they moved to Hamilton, where Tony began his scientific career as a postdoctoral fellow at the Rocky Mountain Labs. Two years later he was invited to join the lab as a staff scientist.

In 1970 Tony and Inge and their two small children moved to Missoula, where Tony was a professor of microbiology at the University of Montana. During this period, he was also the director of the Stella Duncan Memorial Research Institute at UM. From 1977-1979 Tony took a leave of absence from UM to move with his family to Illinois where he set up a research and development department at Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago. In 1979 Tony returned to UM as a professor. In 1982 he moved back to Illinois to be the head of Infectious Disease and Immunology Research at Abbott Laboratories.

In 1985 his love for Montana and persuasion from his friend Edgar Ribi drew Tony back to Hamilton, where he became the vice president of research and development with Ribi ImmunoChem. That company was eventually purchased by GlaxoSmithKline. Tony later created a consulting company based in Hamilton called Technology Resources Inc. In 1995 Tony returned to UM, where he has remained as the associate vice president for research and development.

During his career, Tony made significant contributions in endotoxin research and was an officer of the International Endotoxin Society for six years. While at UM, Tony created a substance that forms the basis of the FDA and World Health Organization mandated tests for all drugs used in humans. This test protects vaccines, drugs and other injected substances from dangerous endotoxins.

In his later work at UM, Tony was passionate about stimulating the Montana economy. He created and oversaw many projects designed to revitalize the economy of eastern Montana; was dedicated to a project designed to facilitate business incubators in western Montana; and was committed to a technology transfer program which ensured that both inventors and UM benefitted from intellectual property developed at UM.

Tony also served on several boards and committees including MonTech, the Governor’s Economic Development Advisory Council, Missoula Economic Development Corporation, Source Giant Springs Inc., a bottled water company, and Lions Club of Hamilton.

Tony loved living in Montana, spending time with his family, fishing, playing tennis, playing his baritone horn with the Missoula Community Concert Band and the Missoula City Band and building, inventing and fixing things in his workshop. Tony also enjoyed traveling, particularly to his wife Inge’s birth country of Denmark and to Munich, Germany, to attend Oktoberfest.

Tony is survived by his wife Inge of Hamilton and Bigfork; daughter Lucy France of Missoula, son Karl Rudbach and wife Courtney of Kalispell; and grandchildren Sonja and Toni France of Missoula and Maggie and Will Rudbach of Kalispell.

A celebration of Tony’s life will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 24, at the home of Lucy France. For details please contact Lucy at (406) 829-6512, [email protected]; or Karl at (406) 756-7692, [email protected].

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials be made to the University of Montana Foundation in memory of Tony Rudbach, P.O. Box 7159, Missoula, MT 59807-7159, or call (406) 243-2593 or 1-800-443-2593; or to the Missoula Community Concert Band, http://www.missoulaband.org.; or the Missoula City Band, http://www.missoulacityband.org.

Johnson-Gloschat Funeral Home in Kalispell is caring for Tony’s family. You are invited to go to http://www.jgfuneralhome.com to offer condolences or to sign Tony’s guestbook.

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A note from Gloria O’Rourke of MEDA:

"If you would like to send cards to Tony Rudbach’s family, here is the home address. According to the newspaper today, a memorial service will be held at a later date. Many of you will no doubt remember Tony’s wife, Inge, as she often accompanied him to conferences. Tony will be much missed but his influence and vision for Montana’s future will always be with us.

g

Inge Rudbach

243 Hilltop Dr

Hamilton, MT 59840-9317 "

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Here’s a few of the stories we’ve posted about Tony’s efforts in Montana:

University of Montana official, Tony Rudbach dreams big for Economic Development Hub in Glendive http://matr.net/article-18136.html

UM ‘Critter Crawl’ Invention Earns Patent http://matr.net/article-14057.html

Eastern Montana revitalization envisioned http://matr.net/article-13009.html

University of Montana business expert, Tony Rudbach pitches ‘hub’ cities idea to commissioners http://matr.net/article-11157.html

Cutting-edge corridor – Promising biotechnology firms continue to grow, thanks in large part to close relationships with UM, MSU http://matr.net/article-9607.html

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