Dorothy Sampson Smith Rudkin

Family-Placed Obituary

DOROTHY SAMPSON SMITH RUDKIN Dorothy Sampson Smith Rudkin of West Palm Beach, FL and a long time resident of Florida Gardens in Lake Worth died peacefully at the Otsego Manor in Cooperstown, NY, on August 9, 2010 after a brief illness. She was born on November 10, 1924 in New York City, the daughter of Dorothy Stokes Bostwick Smith Campbell and W.T. Sampson Smith, Sr. She spent her early years in that city attending Miss Hewett's Classes and in Aiken, SC attending Aiken Prep School. She graduated from Miss Porter's School in Farmington, CT and Finch College in New York City. Her interests and accomplishments were varied. As an artist, Dotsie studied at New York's Art Student League and the Artist Colony in Santa Monica, CA. Like her parents and siblings, Dotsie was a competitive International Star Cross racer, sailing "Delilah", hull number 1543, throughout the northeast lake district, Canadian, Florida and Caribbean waters. Dotsie was also an internationally recognized marksman having won many National Skeet Shooting Association competitions in the US and the 1982 World Pigeon Championship in Madrid, Spain. She was the first American Women to hold the title. Dotsie was an experienced big game hunter in Africa and noted for her angling skills from Cuba to the fresh waters of the western United States, Alaska. She was married at St. Thomas Church in New York in 1953 to Henry A. Rudkin, Jr. of Pepperidge Farm, Fairfield, CT. For many years, Dotsie and her husband raced sports cars. Dotsie drove one of the earliest production Porsche, a 1950 "356 bathtub" and was one of the first women to be included in the Automobile Racing Club of America. Many of the Rudkin in summers were spent at their farm, Corries House, in County Carlow, Ireland. There the family raised and trained steeplechase horses, her prize being "Topless Dancer" who won the Guinness Cup in Dublin in 1975. She also bred Selle Francais show horses, one of which, "Sequioa" was a side saddle champion at the 1999 National Horse Show in Madison Square Garden. The National Horse Show was a life long interest where she was a member of the Ladies Committee for thirty five years. Dotsie was an avid genealogist and an archivist of her family's Stokes, Bostwick, and Sampson Smith history. Her forbearers include great-grandfathers Henry S. Stokes, President of the Manhattan Life Insurance Company, Jabez A. Bostwick, founding partner and Treasurer of the Standard Oil Trust, and Admiral W.T. Sampson, USN, who commanded the US naval fleet in the blockade of Havanna during the Spanish American War. Her mother-in-law was Margaret F. Rudkin who founded Pepperidge Farm in her kitchen in Fairfield, CT. She is predeceased by her son, Henry A. Rudkin, . She is survived by her sister, Susanne Smith Dean, Orleans, MA; step- brothers, Colin Campbell, Williamsburg, VA and Douglas Campbell, New Canaan, CT; her daughter Margaret Mercedes Rudkin Gotwald, grand-daughters, Sophie Stokes and Olivia McClain, and her son-in-law Stephen, all of West Palm Beach, FL. In addition she is survived by six nieces and nephews. Dotsie was a founding member of the Palm Beach Trap and Skeet Club, member of the International Star Class Yacht Racing Association, Daughters of the Cincinnati, Colonial Dames, the NRA, Fairfield Country Club, Fairfield County Hunt Club, Pequot Yacht Club, River Club, and the Bath and Tennis Club. Service and Internment will be private. To express condolences and/or make donations Visit PalmBeachPost.com/obituaries