Elmer Clyde Rudy, 86, of Rockford, died at Mercy Health/Rockford Memorial Hospital at 1:25 p.m. Wednesday, September 13, 2017. He was born in Elgin, IL April 10, 1931; the son of Elmer Rudy and Bernice Tobin Rudy. His family moved to Marengo, IL in 1942, where he attended the Marengo public schools. He graduated from Beloit College Magna Cum Laude in 1953, where he was a member of the 1951 NIT basketball team, the Washington Semester Program, President of the SAE fraternity, and where he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa honorary fraternities. He married Margaret Meyer in Marengo on July 5, 1953.

He then served two years in the United States Army, after which he attended the University of Michigan Law School, where he graduated in 1958, in the top ten percent of his class. He then joined the law firm of Williams, McCarthy, and Kinley in Rockford, IL, where he became managing partner in 1966, and the first President of the firm in 1980, retiring as president in 1988, but continuing to practice law with the firm until 2000. Under his leadership the firm grew from 6 lawyers to 31 lawyers. He was a member of the Winnebago County Bar Association, serving as president in 1980-1981; the Illinois State Bar Association, serving as Chairman of the State and Local Taxation Section Council; and the American Bar Association. Over the years he served on the board of directors of a wide range of civic and non-for-profit organizations. He was trustee of the Rockford Public Library and the Northern Illinois Library System, and was a member of the Rockford Civil War Roundtable. He served on the Board of Directors of the Rockford Chamber of Commerce, the council of 100, Inc., and the Rockford Rotary Club. He also served as a Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Midway Village Museum, where he served on the board for 34 years; as a Director and Chairman of Rosecrance; as Director and Chairman of the Board of Boys Farm School; as Director at Booker Washington Center; and as Director and Chairman of the Board of Wesley Willows. He received the Edward Potter Lathrop Medal from the Winnebago County Bar Association, the Service above Self Award from the Rockford Rotary Club, and was listed in Who's Who in America.