Preliminary Inventory of the Eldon Rudd Papers

Eldon Dean Rudd was born to Charles B. and Edna (Price) Rudd at Camp Verde, Arizona in 1920. He married Ann Merritt in 1944 and the couple had two daughters, Carolyn and Katherine. Eldon Rudd earned his B.A. from Arizona State College in 1947 and his J.D. from the University of Arizona in 1949.

Rudd served as a pilot in the United States Marine Corps from 1942 to 1946 as and a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1950 to 1970. He sat on the Board of Supervisors of Maricopa County, Arizona from 1972 until his election to the United States House of Representatives as a Republican in 1976. After retiring from Congress in 1987, Rudd worked with the law firm of Shimmel, Hill, Bishop and Gruender of Phoenix in addition to serving on the Board of Directors of the Southern Pacific Railroad and on the Board of Directors of the Salt River Project (1988-2002). Rudd was also a member of the American, Arizona, and Maricopa Bar Associations and authored World Communism: Threat to Freedom (Regnery Gateway, 1987). Eldon Rudd died in Scottsdale, Arizona on February 8, 2002 and is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery in Phoenix.