AUGUSTA – Maj. Ruel “Dudley” Burnham, U.S.A.F (Ret.), 85, of Jay, died peacefully at Augusta Rehabilitation Center on Sunday, Oct. 5, after a long illness.

He was born at Rumford Hospital on May 23, 1923, the son of Nettie Richardson Bean Burnham and Ruel Meserve Burnham of Severy Hill, Dixfield. He was educated at the Good Will School in Hinckley and Dixfield High School. He graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor’s degree in physics and later attended the Air Force Institute of Technology Engineering Masters Program, graduating in 1960.

Dudley entered the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and attended flight training. He received his wings in 1945 and then was assigned to the 483rd bomb squadron in Foggia, Italy. He was a P.O.W. in Germany for eight months, after being shot down in Southern Germany on July 18, 1944. After he was released from the service in 1945, he returned to the U.S. and married Alice Catherine Francis D’Onofrio.

He again entered the U.S. Army Air Force during the Korean War. After an overseas assignment in Japan and Taiwan, (1952 – 1956) he returned to the U.S. and was assigned to Harlingen Air Force Base in Texas, then Research and Development at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, Hanscom Field in Massachusetts and Vandenberg AFB in California.

Dudley retired from the USAF as a major in 1967. He was employed as a computer engineer at International Paper Co. in Jay for 10 years. He then spent eight years in Saudi Arabia as a computer process control engineer, retiring from ARAMCO in 1986. Dudley was an avid pilot (earning his instrument rating), mechanic and boatsman. He was a member of the VFW, AOPA, the Good Will-Hinckley Society and the Retired Officers Association (TROA).

Dudley is survived by Alice Burnham and his seven children, Sylvia Ouellette and husband, Daniel, David Burnham, Michael Burnham and wife, Janyce, Susan Hall and husband, Peter, Christina Burnham and partner, Christopher Bennet, Catherine Burnham and husband, Jeff Noel and Caroline Lienhardt and husband, Paul; nine grandchildren, (listed chronologically) Jason Ouellette, Todd Burnham and wife, Jennifer, Melissa Burnham, Tyler Lienhardt, Connor Noel, Jasmine Burnham, Wolfe Lienhardt, Dillon Burnham and Eli Lienhardt; and four great-grandchildren.