Rudolf "Rudy" Albert Raff

Rudolf (Rudy) Albert Raff, 77, of Bloomington, died Saturday, January 5, 2019 in Bloomington Hospital. He was born November 10, 1941 in Shawinigan, Québec, Canada to Rudolf A. V. Raff and Therese Dufresne Raff. He was a Distinguished Professor of Biology, Emeritus, at Indiana University.

Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Elizabeth Raff of Bloomington; a daughter Amanda Raff and her husband Philip Cohen of New Rochelle, New York; a son Aaron Raff and his wife Laura of Liberty, Missouri; four grandchildren, Daniel and Alexzander Raff Cohen and Andrew and Adam Raff; a sister Emma Jakoi and her husband Laszlo of Durham, North Carolina; a brother Robert Raff and his wife Mary DeLois of Portland, Maine; a sister-in-law Alice Craft of Indianapolis; a brother-in-law John Craft of Poolesville, Maryland; four nephews; and many cousins. He was preceded in death by his parents.

Growing up in Pittsburgh, Rudy was drawn to the complexity of nature from a young age. He traced the foundation of his scientific career to early mentorship he received as a teenaged volunteer assistant in the Section of Insects and Spiders at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. Rudy went on to receive his undergraduate degree from Penn State University and his Ph.D. from Duke University. He served as a Navy officer, posted to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, rising to the rank of lieutenant. He completed a post-doctoral position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the faculty of Indiana University in 1971. He spent his long and productive career at Indiana University, retiring in 2018.

Rudy’s scientific work focused on the relationship between how organisms develop during their lifetimes to how similar organisms evolve over eons. He focused his studies on the sea urchin, a salt-water invertebrate that lives in oceans around the world. As part of his research, he worked for a month every year for 30 years at the University of Sydney in Australia. In the course of his work Rudy became a leading force in re-integrating the fields of developmental and evolutionary biology, founding a new discipline of evolutionary development (Evo Devo) and inspiring a new generation of scientists along the way.

Rudy published three influential books – Embryos, Genes and Evolution (with his I.U. colleague and friend Thomas Kaufman and illustrated by Elizabeth Raff), The Shape of Life and Once We All Had Gills. In addition, he founded the flagship journal Evolution & Development, serving as the Editor-in-Chief until his retirement.

Rudy received numerous awards and honors including the first Pioneer Award of the PanAmerican Society of Evolutionary Developmental Biology, a Guggenheim Fellowship and election to the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He enjoyed appearing in a National Geographic Documentary entitled The Shape of Life. He was named the James H. Rudy Professor of Biology in 2000 and promoted to Distinguished Professor in 2002.

Rudy established the intellectual foundation for Evo Devo, mentoring and inspiring a generation of undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs and faculty members. His insight, creativity and general joy in life will be missed by all who knew him. His family and friends take great comfort in the fact that despite his death, his work lives on.

Graveside Services are scheduled for Saturday, January 12, 2019 at 1:00 PM in Clear Creek Cemetery with Military Honors provided by the Monroe County Honor Guard. A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, March 23, 2019 at 1:00 PM in Day & Deremiah-Frye Funeral Home, 4150 E Third St.

If friends so desire, in lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to WonderLab, 308 W 4th St, Bloomington, IN 47404 or the Sycamore Land Trust, PO Box 7801, Bloomington, IN 47407.