Robert R. Rusting, founder of Robert Rusting Associates and Rusting Publications, died on June 9, 2021, coincidentally on his late brother Gerald’s birthday. He was 97 and had multiple health issues that proved too much for medical facilities to handle after he underwent emergency surgery on April 20. Remarkably, he had survived hospitalization with COVID-19 the year before.
He was known to most people as Bob. As head of Rusting Publications, Bob published newsletters, books, and other materials about physical security and safety in hospitals, schools, and other facilities. For some 35 years, he also edited and produced the Journal of Healthcare Protection Management for the International Association of Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS), finally retiring when he was close to 95. In addition, he found time to write the musicals Elroy the Great (based on a story by Al Davis) and Jurgen (based on the book by James Branch Cavell). He composed the music and lyrics as well.
Bob was born on March 23, 1925, to Hyman, a fur matcher, and Fannie (nee Wasserman) Rothstein, a homemaker. He grew up in Brooklyn and Manhattan. When Bob was seven, his brother Gerald was born with cerebral palsy. Thereafter, Bob always made sure to take care of Jerry and his parents. In adulthood, Bob was instrumental in Jerry’s attending and graduating from Hofstra University despite having severe physical handicaps; in arranging for a showing of Jerry’s pencil and ink drawings; and publishing a book of Jerry’s poetry, Tung Yan and Other Poems.
Bob graduated from Townsend Harris High School in 1941. He attended City College, in New York City, where he became editor-in chief of the college newspaper before joining the Army in 1943. He served as a public relations writer during WWII and came away with lifelong friends from his unit, the 4165th Quartermaster Depot Company. He graduated from City College in 1947 and worked in the college’s public relation department. Bob kept his hand in journalism by covering Sunday sermons for the New York Times.
In September 1948, he married Eleanor Kandel, to whom he remained devoted for the rest of his life. The two met when he was a photography counselor at a sleepaway camp and liked the photos that his only paying customer—Eleanor—had him develop. Eleanor, who called him “Mr. Wonderful” and “My knight in shining armor,” survives him.
In the early 1950s, he worked as a traveling salesman for Jules Campos, Inc., opening distributors of such products as Vinyl-Glo. Ever the wit, he described being on the road this way in a letter to his wife: “Any schnook can stay home & make $100 to $150 a week—and see his family every night & weekends. But it takes courage, brains, & ingenuity to travel away from home and lose a couple of thousand besides!” He also worked in public relations at Bulova Watch Company and for Carl Byoir & Associates.
Bob changed his last name to Rusting in 1956 to avoid the anti-Semitism he had encountered in the public relations field. Not one who liked working for others, he established his own public relations business, Robert Rusting Associates, in 1957, serving such clients as Alcan Aluminum, BASF, Aspen Publications, and the diet guru Nathan Pritikin.
Creating publications and editing them was his first love, however, and in 1989 he founded his publishing business. Earlier, in 1977, he (with editor-in-chief I.E. Levine) founded Health Care Week, a weekly newspaper for hospital administrators. The newspaper was sold after a couple of years. Working on Bob’s publications helped to launch the journalism careers of several men and women, including those of his two children—his daughters, Ricki Rusting (who was the features editor at Health Care Week) and Sharyn Rusting Taitz.
In addition to his wife and daughters, Bob is survived by Ricki’s husband, Peter Feigenbaum; his granddaughters Jamie Feigenbaum, Leslie Feigenbaum, Meredith Rusting, and Gillian Orsburn; Gillian’s husband, Jason Orsburn, and Jamie’s husband, Joshua Swidzinski; as well as his deeply adored great-grandchildren: Emily, Ellie, Reid, and Henry.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18