By DAVID SWEARINGEN
TheFlashToday.com
EDITOR’S NOTE: Residents of Erath County are very fortunate to have many men and women who make living here safe, many of whom are volunteers. They are Hometown Heroes! These people keep us safe and we owe them our thanks and our respect. THANK YOU!
STEPHENVILLE (February 24, 2017) – In this week’s edition of The Flash’s Hometown Heroes, we would like to honor Lieutenant Robbie Rudder of the Stephenville Police Department.
Rudder was born in Ft. Worth in 1969. He grew up in Ft. Worth, attending the Holy Family Catholic School through the eighth grade before graduating from Nolan High School in 1987. As a boy, he enjoyed playing baseball, football and soccer.
Rudder graduated from Texas Tech University in 1992 with a degree in Plant & Soil Sciences. He met his wife, Debbie, in 1994 and they were married about a year later. After graduating from Texas Tech, Rudder worked for the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station in Stephenville as a field technician and orchard manager. He did a variety of tasks including working cattle and growing peanuts as well as working on some research projects.
After watching the tv show, COPS, several times Rudder started to think he might enjoy the excitement and the variety that are often a part of a police officer’s day. So he decided to enroll in the Tarleton State University Police Academy in 1996.
He graduates from the academy in April 1997. He started working for the TSU Police Department the very same month and continued until May 2000. Rudder took a job with the Stephenville PD, where he is still working nearly 17 years later.
Lieutenant Rudder says his normal work schedule is Monday through Friday, eight hours a day, but, of course, this quite often is not the case due to various reasons. He may get called in for emergencies or special events on short notice. But, he said he really likes his job and the people he is surrounded by.
“The most important thing to me in anything I do or say in this job is making sure my humanity is readily apparent in everything that I do,” Lt. Rudder said. “You can have all the car chases and all the foot chases and make all the arrest in the world, but if you don’t have a sense of compassion or a sense of humanity in your job then that is a fault. I think humanity is the most important thing regardless of what happens.”
Rudder and his wife also run a cattle operation in Dublin where they have 32 head. He says this takes up most of his time away from his police work.
However, he is also a motorcycle enthusiast. Debbie bought him his first Harley-Davidson motorcycle in 2003 for their anniversary. Rudder now owns and rides a 2011 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic. He has been a member of the Blue Knights Motorcycle Club since 2003. The Stephenville Police Dept. does not currently have a motorcycle-officer program but if they were to start one, you can bet Rudder would be interested in filling one of those positions. He and his family attend the St. Brendans Catholic Church in Stephenville and he has been a member of the Knights of Columbus since 2006.
Rudder also said it is very gratifying when he runs into area citizens and they tell him how he helped them to turn their lives around after getting into trouble with the law in their younger days.
Thank you, Lieutenant Robbie Rudder, for your valuable service to our wonderful community!
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