Theodore Davis Ruddock Jr.; Gunnery Expert

Retired Vice Adm. Theodore Davis Ruddock Jr., 96, a naval gunnery expert and highly decorated veteran of both world wars. After serving on the battleship Utah during World War I, Ruddock concentrated on gun and ordnance development, testing and procurement. In World War II, he helped transform private industrial production lines into weapons factories, and then commanded the battleship Massachusetts and Battleship Division 4 in the South Pacific, earning a Navy Cross and a Purple Heart. Ruddock served as superintendent of the Naval Gun Factory in Washington after the war. Retiring in 1954, he turned to a career as a math teacher and school administrator. In Palo Alto on Friday.