John Rudolph

John Hamilton Rudolph, former President/CEO of Rudolph & Sletten, Inc. in Redwood City, California passed away August 7th, 2015, in his Morgan Hill home he shared with his wife, Catherine Cruz Rudolph. John, 64, had battled cancer for over two years before he entered hospice care.

John was born in 1951 in San Jose, California to Onslow “Rudy” Hamilton Rudolph Jr. and Betty Fry Rudolph. During his childhood, John was a Boy Scout. He attended Los Altos High School in the city of Los Altos graduating in 1969. He attended University of Oregon where he earned a BS degree in Psychology in 1973. He received his Masters degree in Counseling, Marriage, Family and Child from Santa Clara University in Santa Clara in 1979 and practiced family counseling until joining the family business where he became the Rudolph family’s fifth generation of builders. John worked at his father’s construction company, Rudolph & Sletten for 25 years in the Equipment Yard, Human Resources, Estimating, and Special Projects. He served as Chief of Operations and EVP from 1995-1997, and President/CEO from 1997 to 2001, when he retired to pursue his calling to be a deacon in the Anglican Faith. He attended seminary at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in 2001, and continued his Religious Studies at the Instituto de Guadalupe in the Diocese of El Camino where he was ordained as a deacon to serve in the Old Catholic Church ministering to Hispanic Congregations. In 2012, John converted to Catholicism and he volunteered at the William F. James Boys Ranch for St. Catherine of Alexandria Church in Morgan Hill.

John dedicated much of his time during the past ten years studying and training to be a grape farmer, wine maker, and sommelier for his vineyard and winery, Milagro Vineyard, which was established in 2005. His petite sirah wines have won Best of Class and Gold Medals in 2008 and 2010 at the Sommelier Challenge. John’s passion in life was boating and he learned to sail the “Super B” and later he was the proud owner of a cruising trawler “Kiapoko” that anchored in Sausalito, Brisbane and Ventura, California; Seattle, Washington; and Granville Island, Vancouver.

John is preceded in death by his first wife, Kathryn Knudson Rudolph; his father, Onslow Rudolph Jr.; and his brother-in-law, Jimi Simmons. John is survived by his wife, Cathy, and daughter, Christiana; his mother, Betty Rudolph of los Altos, California; his sister, Karen Rudolph of Los Altos, California and her children, Arthur and Jay, and his brother, Allen Rudolph of Menlo Park, California and his wife, Pam, and their children, Alex, Elise, and Chloe. He is also survived by his stepmother, Carolyn Rudolph of San Francisco, California and her daughters, DaNett DeBrine and April Lyons; his mother-in-law Gail Knudson; his father and mother-in-law, Frank and Carmen Cruz, and his brothers and sisters-in-law, Teresa, Michael, Elizabeth, Barbara, and Thomas, and numerous aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews.

Services will be held on August 22th at 10:00 a.m. at Christ Episcopal Church in Los Altos. The family requests that donations be made in lieu of flowers to Seminary Redemptoris Mater, an Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary of Guam USA. Donations should be designated in memory of John Rudolph and sent to Catherine Rudolph, 13435 Chaparral Road, Morgan Hill, CA 95037.