Vale Rick Ruddell

Professor Rick Ruddell was a founding member of the International Society for the Study of Rural Crime.

A professor at the University of Regina in Canada, Rick was also the Law Foundation of Saskatchewan Chair in Police Studies.

He served on the Executive of our Society from its inception in 2019 until 2022. Rick passed away on 2 January 2023.

And he is very sadly missed.

 

Rick published very extensively: more than 130 peer-reviewed articles and other scholarly outputs; he edited or co-authored 14 books.

He was always available for media commentary – just before his passing, for instance, he spoke of the need to take longer-term views of homicide statsitics. And he was known to host “ask me anything” sessions on Reddit, a classic example of how he would adeptly bridge the divide between academia and the wider community.

A member of the International Journal of Rural Criminology‘s Editorial Advisory Board, Rick cheerily and promptly would provide sound and helpful blind peer reviews… authors of articles published will not know whether he contributed to improving their publication, but he certainly did. On one occasion recently, when asked if he could oblige yet again, his only condition was the shouting of a beer when one of the editors might next be in Saskatachewan.

Above all else, Rick was a terrific person and a fabulous mentor to many.

Rick leaves an impressive legacy, as both a scholar and a person – in particular in the field of rural criminology, in which he is easily considered a pioneer especially with his research into rural boom and bust economies. His very impressive book, Oil, gas and boomtowns is but one example. In 2022, Rick organised and presented a virtual roundtable on this topic for the Society – his own contribution commences at 37:45.

The President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Regina, Jeff Keshen, offers a few more words in tribute to our dear friend and colleague Rick.

A longer tribute to Rick from the rural criminology community will be forthcoming and published both here and in other places.

Vale Rick Ruddell.