Jeremy Ruck — a broadcast engineer and P.E. who owned Jeremy Ruck & Associates, managed Willis Tower in Chicago and wrote many articles for Radio magazine and Radio World — has died.
According to his obituary at Oaks-Hines Funeral Home in Canton, Ill., Ruck was 50. He died after a battle with COVID-19.
Ruck graduated from Bradley University in 1996 with a degree in electrical engineering.
His friend and colleague Mark Persons said that Ruck was an employee of D.L. Markley & Associates for many years, but left that firm after Don Markley died. He formed Jeremy Ruck & Associates in 2012.
“The broadcast engineering community will miss Jeremy Ruck,” Persons told Radio World.
[A Friend Remembers Jeremy Ruck: “You Felt Smarter After Any Conversation With Him”]
“Jeremy was always young and vital, ready to go the top of the Sears Tower, now known as the Willis Tower, in Chicago to supervise a broadcast antenna project in the middle of the night. Many remember Jeremy as a frequent speaker at the Wisconsin Broadcasters Clinic in Madison, Wis., describing the complexities and math behind engineering problems.
“He came to my town on the 1990s to do a tune up of a three-tower AM directional and sipped wine with Paula and me when the workday was done. We talked endlessly about the radio industry and amateur radio.”
Persons said Jeremy Ruck, WM9C, became an Extra Class amateur radio operator at age of 17 and was active in the ham community over the years.
“Like Don Markley, not many can fill his shoes.”
Fletcher Ford, CEO of Regional Media, posted on social media that Ruck was “one of the best consulting broadcast engineers in the country, a great husband and father, a devout Catholic and Freemason, and a great friend.”
Wayne Pecena, immediate past president of the Society of Broadcast Engineers, said, “I recall one particular presentation from 2016 where he demystified (for me) the use of a network analyzer and made a Smith Chart make sense. I regret that I did not have the opportunity to know him better and learn more from him.”
Another friend, engineer Art Reis, said Ruck had been involved in leading the television repack in Chicago. “I am sad beyond words,” Reis wrote.
Among his survivors are his wife Frankie and 10-year-old son Alexander.
A graveside funeral services will be held on Thursday, Dec. 16, at St Joseph Cemetery in Canton, Ill, according to Ruck’s obituary.
