Dr. Mitch “Dusty” Ruda
(1950 - 2013)
Dr. Ruda was born on May 29, 1950, in New York City, the first child of Albert and Florence Ruda. His father worked in the garment industry and his mother worked as a bookkeeper. As a teenager, Mitch attended Stuyvesant High School, a New York City school known for producing highly excelling graduates. Four Nobel laureates have graduated from Stuyvesant, along with several other notable people, too numerous to mention. Even though he lived in the city, Mitch became fascinated with astronomy. This eventually led him to the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, and a class in telescope making. At age 14 he completed his first telescope, and thus had an early start into the field of optics. He went on to receive his B.S. Degree in Astrophysics from Colgate University in 1971, his M.S. Degree in Optics from the University of Rochester in 1973, and his Ph.D. Degree in Optics from the University of Arizona, Optical Sciences Center in 1979.
By 1994, the Tucson branch of Talandic had grown to a total of 4 persons. At this point, Dr. Ruda decided to form an independent company, known as Ruda and Associates, Inc., based on these 4 persons. Under Dr. Ruda's guidance, Ruda and Associates developed optical systems for the garment and automotive industries, for weather satellites, for the lithography industry, and provided consulting for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Projects branched out into the areas of non-imaging concentrators and gradient-index optics. Demand for rapid prototyping led to the addition of staff (in an independent branch of the company called Cardinal Optics, Inc.) in 2000 for the purpose of developing complete optical systems from initial concepts through all aspects of design and assembly/alignment. Later the two companies merged and the name was changed to Ruda-Cardinal, Inc. Work followed in the areas of military surveillance (Argus IS) and fire-control systems (GMS2), pilot night vision systems, hyperspectral systems, panoramic systems, zoom systems, consulting for NIF, and much more. Dr. Ruda provided valuable input into all of these projects until his final few weeks.
In his role as President of Ruda-Cardinal, Mitch always cared for his employees' well-being and encouraged their new and original contributions to the company. Those who had the privilege of working and interacting with him professionally saw that his knowledge of optics was deep and sprang from a genuine love of knowledge and a willingness to perform the hard work to attain this knowledge. His interests ranged far beyond optics into the areas of skiing, music, cooking, woodworking, bicycling, and more. His friendship and guidance will be missed by all who knew him. Mitchell C. Ruda, President and founder of Ruda-Cardinal, Inc., died on August 31, 2013, in Phoenix, Arizona. He was 63. Ruda is survived by his wife, Wendy, and his daughter, Arielle.