Rudy Boesch lost his life at 91 years. The world lost The Survivor fan-favorite on Friday, November 1, following a long-drawn fight with Alzheimer’s disease, a family member informed.
Boesch, a U.S. Navy vet, played on the first season of Survivor: Borneo at the age of 72 succeeded in the third position.
He then proceeded for Survivor: All-Stars (season 8) at 75, however, it was the second contestant sent home. He endures the title of the oldest person to play on the CBS series.
Following the series wrapped, he advanced on to do several other appearances. In 2001, he published The Book of Rudy: The Wit and Wisdom of Rudy
Boesch served in the Navy at 17 in 1945. After seven years, he was chosen as one of 50 officers to join the first SEAL (Sea-Air-Land) Team TWO.
He completed two combat tours in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970 and earned the Bronze Star Medal. He got retired from the Navy after 45 years of active service in August 1990.
Earlier in 2010, he was conscripted into the Commando Hall of Honor at MacDill Air Force Base.
Subsequently, he hosted an annual charity event, Rudy Run SEAL Challenge on Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, to raise funds for the Naval Special Warfare Foundation.
“I just hate getting old – it’s slowing me down,” Boesch spoke in a 2014 interview with The Virginian Pilot “I don’t jog anymore ‘cuz my knees hurt and stuff like that. I walk a lot and I am slowing down walking.”
Although he adored Survivor, he continuously emphasized his fans that his first love was the Navy. “The best life in the world. Survivor was nothing matched to what I did, and it’s just that way,” he replied in the interview.
During then, he also unveiled that he’d been living in the same house than he had for 65 years; his wife died in 2005 but his three daughters and grandchildren lived not much far.
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