Team Ruddy & Cheryl

In the early hours of Thursday, April 4th, Ruddy was coming home from a night out with friends and collapsed in an Uber. His quick-thinking driver brought him straight to Mass General Hospital after Ruddy remarked, “Why does my head hurt so bad?” Ruddy went into cardiac arrest and underwent surgery to relieve some of the pressure in his skull. He went into cardiac arrest again later on Thursday afternoon, but the doctors in the neurosciences intensive care unit were able to resuscitate him.

Ruddy is currently stable in a medically-induced coma while we wait for the swelling to subside.

No summary could ever do justice to Ruddy, nor let you know just what an incredible person he is, and why there are literally dozens of people who each describe him as some variant of “the best person I know.” But we owe it to him to try, so here goes.

Ruddy is an educator, first and always. But he is also a nerd, a yogi, a foodie, an activist and, to seemingly everyone he meets, a real and true friend. Ruddy loves a good time, and above all, a good meal (especially when cooked by the best cook in the world: his mom, Cheryl)!

Ruddy’s enthusiasm for education is evident in how much he loves his work as a community educator at the New England Aquarium. His passion for yoga led him to become the well-known and universally-liked manager of South Boston Yoga. Being a giant nerd has led him to numerous Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, being an expert on Marvel Comics and the MCU, and conventions like PAX East where he stuns with his creative and original cosplay. Even going so far as to take second place in a cosplay contest at the 2019 PAX East.

But Ruddy’s intense desire to help people has also kept him involved in activism, especially for anti-racist causes and queer liberation. His love for his community has led him to become certified as a street medic, to care for his friends and family at many of Boston’s rallies and protests. Ruddy is always ready to help, with a bag full of cough drops and water bottles.

Ruddy has made everyone he meets a better person for knowing him. His genuine compassion awakens compassion in the people around him—in the serenity of the yoga studio, and in the often-heated atmosphere of the protest rally.

He has supported his community through thick and thin, sometimes in ways we didn’t even know we needed. Now is our chance to do something, however small, to pay him back.