Rudolph B. Pruden

03/08/1930 - 04/26/2025

Rudolph Bennie Pruden, 95, of Holland, formerly of Washington, DC, passed away peacefully on Saturday, April 26, 2025.
Rudy was born March 8, 1930, in Portsmouth, Virginia, to Bennie and Christine (Walker) Pruden. After graduating from Our Lady of Victory High School, Rudy spent two years at Norfolk State University, before leaving to join the De Paur Infantry Chorus. Rudy completed his military service in the Air Force before finishing his BA degree in sociology at Notre Dame where he was also the baritone soloist in the Glee Club. He then joined the Saint Paul Seminary, one of the many ways in which he pursued his lifelong dedication to service.
Recognizing that God had very different plans for him, Rudy left the seminary to work for a time at Boystown, before returning to Notre Dame for a master's degree in Sociology with a concentration in penology. During his time at Notre Dame, he and Fernande Martineau met and fell in love.
After completing his masters, he became a Parole Officer in New York City where he and Fernande began a family. He also continued doing graduate level work at NYU while teaching first at Fordham and then at Rutgers where he had a joint appointment working with the Extension Service. (Rutgers was the land grant university for New Jersey.)
As a result of his work, the US Department of Agriculture asked him to join the Extension Service fulltime at the national level. He and his family thus moved to Washington, DC in order for Rudy to head the Extension Service unit which worked with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, with the American Territories and on American Reservations.
After more than a decade at Agriculture, Rudy moved to the Department of Commerce where he worked in the Office of Inspector General at NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) until he and Fernande both retired in 1995. They enjoyed spending summers in Michigan and winters in DC. In addition, Rudy served in various boards over the course of his career and retirement: Donnelly Corporation, the Gospel Rescue Mission of Washington, Chariscenter USA and Recovery International.
Rudy and Fernande, over the years, were members of both St. Francis de Sales and Our Lady of the Lake in Holland, Michigan. Rudy attended HASP classes and meetings at Hope College and enjoyed not just learning, but also the wonderful friends he met there. Rudy was preceded in death by his parents and his brother Walter Clarence Pruden.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Fernande, their children: Christine Marie Pruden and Stéphane Bédère, Vincent Benjamin Pruden; sister-in-law Marie Josephte Martineau, niece Marie Chantal Martineau, cousin Clarice W. Scott and Paul Scott and Clarice's son Tremaine Shamlee.
A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. (Eastern Time), Saturday, May 3, 2025, at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, 171 W. 13th Street, Holland MI 49423. Visitation will be 5 to 8 p.m. (Eastern Time), Friday, May 2, at the Langeland-Sterenberg Funeral Home, 315 E. 16th Street, Holland, MI 49423. Interment will be in Pilgrim Home Cemetery.