Robert Wayne Rugenstein's Obituary
Robert Wayne Rugenstein
Dec 4, 1921 – Sept 25, 2022
Robert was born in Indianapolis Indiana to August and Dorothy Rugenstein. He had an older sister, Edith. His mother passed away when he was 7 years old. His dad remarried and had two more kids, Charmayne and Edwin.
August was a printer and when the depression hit he had no work. The family was split up; Robert and Edith were cared for by Aunt Emma. Robert took whatever jobs he could find, (first being in a slaughter house washing cattle butts at 25 cents a day). The government had started the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) program and Robert was sent off to Bend/Redman Oregon to work in the forests. He graduated high school in Redman, Oregon.
Upon completing CCC he took a job building a new highway. The Alaska Highway, and went off to Canada and Alaska. He worked primarily as a lineman installing poles and power/communication lines. During that time he was injured in a dynamite blast but stayed on the job. It was so cold they had to blast pole holes. Note; IF the temperature dropped to -50f they didn’t have to go out and work.
When WW2 broke out Robert signed up with the US Army. He was sent to India and worked in Burma, China mostly with the British Army. He traveled to several areas, including the “Hump” into China. Worked with the headhunters that were hired to kill Japanese, installed power and communication for the Army and stayed in the area for the entire war. During this time he was electrocuted while working on a pole and was saved by a local worker who knocked him off the powerline.
At the end of the war he returned to Indiana (discharged Jan 6, 1946) and subsequently met Rosemary Hasty, they were married in Dec 1945 and had 3 kids, (Mark, Warren and Kathryn). Initially they lived in Fort Wayne, moved to Roanoke and around 1960 moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Robert worked several jobs ending up in the clothing trade as a cutter. He progressed to operations and design.
After moving to Kansas City area about 1962 he worked as VP for production at a local clothing manufacturer. That company folded around 1964 and he moved on to several different companies, different cities and locations over the years.
In 1964 he was divorced and married Ida, they remained married until her death (over 50 years).
At approximately 55 years old Robert quit working and joined the International Executive Service Corps (IESC), [an executive peace corps] He along with his key aide, Ida, would go to different countries for one to three months to train personnel on how to design, run and produce clothing products for international sales. They weren’t paid for their work but all expenses were paid. He still holds the record of over 47 trips to other countries to assist in the design, production and overall operation of textile companies in the clothing manufacturing. He and his wife, Ida, were awarded a special award by the US President for their work overseas. He wrote a book in “Executive Peace Corps” about their adventures with IESC.
During his life he was always “thinking” and had several patents (from solar, to car covers, to cutting machines). He had the knack of building his own homes with unique (ball and round) designs. He would design them on legal paper, order materials, build the home and the left over waste material was minimal (fit in one wheel barrel). He was trained as a blacksmith early in life, ran a farm, made concrete tiles, build and renovated homes and was always thinking of improvements or different ways to accomplish ideas.
He was a long time member of the Shriners, (he assisted in a kids getting specialized Shriner’s Hospital care while he was overseas). He was a member of Mensa as well.
Robert lived a full active life and had worked in over 50 countries, traveled around the world (couple of times) and was always looking for adventure.
Robert moved to Hawaii after Ida passed away (Jan 9, 2019) in 2019.
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