Rudy Van Fleet, 87, Columbus, passed away Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019, at Agrace Hospice in Fitchburg.

Rudy was born May 25, 1931, to Duane and Gladys (Ewing) Van Fleet in the town of Forest, Richland County, Wisconsin. He graduated from the UW-Platteville and UW-Madison. He played basketball at Platteville and was later inducted into its Athletic Hall of Fame as well as the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Rudy was married to Nancy Hughes on June 20, 1953. He farmed near Viola, Wisconsin, and later taught vocational agriculture at Ithaca High School and Columbus High School. Rudy spent 26 years with the University of Wisconsin Extension as a farm management agent in Columbia County. In later years, Rudy and Nancy traveled extensively around the United States and Europe. Rudy passionately took up pitching horseshoes in his retirement and became the secretary/treasurer of the Deansville Horseshoe Club. He was inducted into the Wisconsin Horseshoe Pitchers Association Hall of Fame in 2015. Even on evenings when pitching didn’t go so well, Nancy would ask, “But did you have a good time?” When Rudy would answer that he did, Nancy would reply, “Then that’s what matters.”