Former Vice Rector of ODU Board of Visitors dies at 75
July 22, 2019
William Louis Rueger
William Louis Rueger, a former vice rector of Old Dominion University's Board of Visitors, died July 20 after a long illness. He was 75.
Rueger served on the Board of Visitors from 1992 to 1996 and as vice rector from 1994 to 1996. He also was a member of the board of ODU's Real Estate Foundation from 1998 to 2013 and was named director emeritus in 2014.
"He was a tremendously engaging individual who treated everybody in the room the same way," ODU President John R. Broderick said. "You always felt like you were with a close friend. I know how much President Koch appreciated his leadership, as did all of us."
Years after Rueger left the board, he continued attending University events and sending congratulatory notes, Broderick said. "He was still very much a part of our campus."
Rueger was born in New London, Conn., on Aug. 20, 1943, and lived in Virginia Beach for seven decades. He graduated from Randolph-Macon College in 1965 and went to work at Virginia National Bank (now Bank of America) to begin a highly successful banking career. He held a variety of executive roles, including senior banking executive for the Hampton Roads region.
He was active with many civic organizations, including the Eastern Virginia Medical School, Virginia Stage Company and The General Douglas MacArthur Foundation.
He is survived by his longtime partner, Nancy Grden, executive director of Old Dominion's Strome Entrepreneurial Center, and brother, Thomas Rueger, and his wife, Molly. Other survivors include his nephew, Thomas Rueger Jr., and wife, Christin, and his niece, Kathryn Rueger Scholten, and husband, Jay, and their children, Scarlett, Harper and Vaughan Rueger, and Molly and Cliff Scholten. He was predeceased by his parents, Alice Brown Rueger and William Rueger III.
A funeral service will be held at Galilee Church, 3928 Pacific Ave., Virginia Beach, at 11 a.m. July 25. Burial will take place at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. The family will receive visitors at H.D. Oliver Funeral Home at 2002 Laskin Road, Virginia Beach, from 6 to 8 p.m. July 23.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial remembrances be made to The William L. Rueger Scholarship Fund at Randolph-Macon College, P.O. Box 5005, Ashland, Va. 23005. Online condolences can be offered at hdoliver.com.
