Obituaries

Donald C. RubottomArmy Colonel

Donald Clark Rubottom, 87, a retired Army colonel who served on the executive staff of Army Emergency Relief, a nonprofit financial assistance organization, died Aug. 1 at Ridgecrest Healthcare Center, a nursing home in Ridgecrest, Calif. He had lung cancer.

Col. Rubottom served in the Army from 1941 to 1972. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II and the Chosin Reservoir campaign during the Korean War.

His final active-duty assignment was at U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, where he was chief of the plans division, in the plans and policy directorate.

His military decorations included the Silver Star (in part for taking out an enemy gun nest in Korea), three awards of the Legion of Merit, three awards of the Bronze Star, the Joint Service Commendation Medal and the Army Commendation Medal.

He was born in Gering, Neb., and attended the University of Nebraska, where was a member of the football team that played in the 1941 Rose Bowl and lost to Stanford University.

He received a bachelor's degree from George Washington University in 1966.

He settled in the Washington area after retirement and spent a decade with Army Emergency Relief, during which he helped start a scholarship. He was member of Army Navy Country Club.

In 2001, he moved to Ridgecrest from Springfield.

His wife, Vera Harvey Rubottom, whom he married in 1942, died in 1998.

Survivors include two daughters, Donna Scharf and Ann Roseman, both of Ridgecrest; and three grandchildren.

-- Adam Bernstein