In Memoriam: Frederick J. Ruopp

A dear friend of Thomas Aquinas College, Frederick J. Ruopp, passed away early in the morning on Good Friday, April 19. A generous benefactor of the College, Mr. Ruopp was a member of its Board of Governors for 37 years, beginning with his election in 1982, and serving as chairman from 1986 to 1992. One of the nation’s top-rated money managers, he often lent his vast expertise in financial concerns in overseeing the College’s budget and financial affairs.

Raised in Elmhurst, Illinois, Mr. Ruopp earned a bachelor of science in banking and finance, with honors, at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He then served for 13 months with the U.S. Army in Korea. Upon returning stateside, he took a job with the trust division of the First National Bank of Chicago and earned a Master’s of Business Administration in finance at the Kellogg School of Northwestern University. In 1971 he founded the Chelsea Management Company, of which he was chairman and CEO, managing assets of over $1 billion.

“Thomas Aquinas College is the realization of a dream,” Mr. Ruopp said at the College’s 35^th Anniversary Gala, which he chaired in 2006. “This was a dream of a college that would imbue in its graduates a love and knowledge of all that is best in the Western tradition intellectually and spiritually, and all done in the light of the Christian faith.”

Mr. Ruopp is predeceased by his wife, Joyce, and son Christopher; he is survived by his son Frederick, Jr. His funeral Mass will be offered at 9:30 a.m. on Friday, April 26, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles. In lieu of flowers, donations in Memory of Frederick J. Ruopp may be made to any of the following: Catholic Charities of Los Angeles, Thomas Aquinas College, or Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.May his soul, and all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace.