A sad day: local pastor, sports fan ‘Father Rudy’ dies

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By Mary McCarty Updated 8:32 AM Tuesday, March 23, 2010

What can you say about a priest who was known to pepper his homilies with updates from OSU games?

Anybody who attended Ascension Church in Kettering from 1980 to 1992 knows I’m talking about the Rev. Edward Rudemiller — or “Father Rudy,” as he was known to all.

Father Rudy was a man of the cloth who managed to be both down-to-earth and spiritually uplifting. “He seemed like an everyman priest and he was so personable,” recalled my friend Mary Ann Van Atta of Waynesville, who grew up in the parish. “He often would begin his homilies with a little joke — the age-old idea of warming up the crowd — and then following through with a significant spiritual insight.”

Father Rudy died Thursday, at 77, from complications of diabetes and heart disease. In later life the former Elder High School football captain had lost both of his legs to diabetes, but his nephew, Dr. Mark Rudemiller, told the Cincinnati Enquirer that his uncle never lost his love of life or his love of sports: “The saddest thing is, he won’t be able to see March Madness this year.”

The Most Rev. Daniel Pilarczyk, archbishop emeritus of Cincinnati, will officiate at the funeral Mass at 10:30 this morning, March 23, at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Cincinnati. The Rev. Del Staigers, a Dayton pastor, will deliver the homily.

The press release from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati stated that he was “best known as a longtime Elder High School teacher and athletic director,” but don’t tell that to parishioners at Ascension, where his influence is still profoundly felt.

Rudemiller never forgot Ascension, either. When the Rev. Chris Worland was named pastor six years ago, he immediately called a mutual friend to ask, “Who is this guy and is he going to screw up my church?”

Worland observed, “Father Rudy was instrumental in building up a community and the sense that we’re going to be a family.”

Before he was ordained, Staigers did his internship at Ascension, with Rudemiller serving as his supervisor. “He always said that the priesthood is a mystery, and it took me a long time to figure out what he meant: that God uses human beings — and even priests — to bring a message to his people, despite our sinfulness and weakness.”

The Rev. Lawrence Mierenfeld, pastor of Centerville’s Church of the Incarnation, served as Ascension’s associate pastor for four years. “Rudy always saw the positive side of anything,” he recalled. “I always told him that he could have been booked on the Titanic and he would have thought he was going to be OK. He was a people person, and he taught me that you need to be present to your people and compassionate and caring.”

My mother was one of the countless Ascension parishioners who loved Father Rudy and counted on his wise counsel. When my first child was born 18 years ago, I hadn’t been a practicing Catholic for many years. Mom assured me that Father Rudy would baptize Alec. And he did, gently leading me and my husband, a Methodist, through the Baptismal process, never once scolding me for straying from the church.

It was a pivotal moment in my decision to come back. What if he had turned us away? What if he had condescended to us?

Well, then, he wouldn’t have been Father Rudy.

As my friend Mary Ann recalled, “He made you feel welcome and he would joke and have fun but he would follow through with a significant spiritual lesson. He came at a very significant time in our parish, and he really gathered us together as a family.”

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