Rudolph Alexander "Rudy" Ashton

ASHTON, Rudolph Alexander "Rudy", died Monday, February 2, 2009. He was 89 and a resident of the Cedarfield Retirement Community. A respected lawyer, Certified Public Accountant, and a Life Master at the game of Bridge, he retired from Reynolds Metals Company in 1983 as director of the tax department after a 28 year career with the company. He is survived by his wife, Audrae, after 66 years of marriage; two sons, Rudolph III and wife, Joanne, of New Bern, N.C., and their children, Alex and Erin, and James J. Ashton and wife, Linda, of Raleigh, N.C., and their daughter, Jennifer. Born in Gulport, Miss. to a career Naval officer and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Wilson, Rudy, as he was known to his many friends, spent time growing up at several Naval installations before settling in Washington, D.C. He graduate from George Washington University in 1940, with a Magna Cum Laude degree in business administration and went on to law school and the practice of law, where he made the Order of Coif, the honorary legal society. It was at GWU that he met his wife while serving as a student instructor. They were married in 1942 and moved to Richmond in 1954, when he joined the tax department of Reynolds Metal, becoming the department director in 1970. Shortly after his retirement, he suffered a serious stroke that required months of hospitalization and rehabilitation. "I can do everything but walk," he joked to his friends. He was a member of the Jamestown Society, with family roots going back to John Ashton of Westmoreland County in 1621. Highly respected in business and at Bridge, he refused to let his disability keep him down. He was a longtime member of St. Matthew's Episcopal Church. A memorial service for Mr. Ashton will be held Tuesday, February 10, at 2 p.m. at Cedarfield. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to Sheltering Arms Hospital, 8254 Atlee Road, Mechanicsville, Va. 23116.
This obituary was originally published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.