Daniel Ruge, 88; Reagan’s White House Physician

Daniel Ruge, a neurosurgeon chosen as White House physician to President Reagan during his first term, has died. He was 88.

Ruge died of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm Aug. 30 at his home in Denver.

An expert on spinal cord injuries, Ruge (pronounced Roog-ee) practiced medicine early in his career with First Lady Nancy Reagan’s stepfather, Loyal Davis, in Chicago. Her stepbrother Richard Davis, also a neurosurgeon, was at one time Ruge’s resident.

Before his appointment to the White House in 1981, Ruge was chief of the Veterans Administration Spinal Cord Injury Service in Washington.

His selection broke the tradition of having a military physician, preferably one who specialized in surgery or internal medicine, serve as the president’s personal doctor. Ruge replaced Rear Adm. William Lukash, who had served four presidents over 14 years.

Ruge was White House physician for four years.

After the 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan, he had a role in providing updates, usually sunny, on the president’s health. Ruge remained at Reagan’s side as the president recovered from the shooting and helped oversee his overall care.

Daniel August Ruge, the son of farmers, was a native of Murdock, Neb., and a 1939 graduate of North Central College in Naperville, Ill.

He was a 1945 graduate of Northwestern University’s medical school and also received master’s and doctorate degrees in surgery from the university. He became a professor of surgery at Northwestern.

In his last year of medical school, Ruge did clerical work for Davis, a Northwestern professor, and later was his medical partner. They practiced at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where Ruge became chief of staff and chairman of neurosurgery.

Ruge also had an affiliation with a series of VA hospitals, and began working at the Veterans Administration in Washington in 1976.

For all his seeming prominence as the caretaker of a superpower’s leader, Ruge said appearances were deceiving. In the White House directory, he was listed between the chief usher and curator of White House artifacts.

He was a founding member and director of the American Spinal Cord Injury Assn.

His scholarly writing included two books on spinal cord injuries.

Ruge is survived by his wife of 63 years, Greta Piper Ruge; two children; two sisters; and two grandchildren.