Homer Rudolph "Rudy" Schmittou

09/14/1936 - 07/18/2025

Homer Rudolph "Rudy" Schmittou of Auburn, Alabama, passed away Friday July 18th, 2025. He was born on September 14th, 1936. He was preceded in death by his parents, Clarence Raburn and Naomi Schmittou and all seven siblings including five brothers and two sisters. He is survived by his wife of sixty-five years Nan, daughter Katheryn Lynn, two sons Thomas (Natalea) and Todd (Wei), and four grandchildren: Dalton (Allie), Alexis, Preston and Kingston.

Rudy was born into a rural Tennessee family. Like many others, the lessons of his depression era upbringing influenced him until the end of his life. He was a gifted athlete and after finishing high school attended the University of Wyoming on a Football and Track scholarship. After one year he returned to Nashville and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps serving at Paris Island for two years. Following his service, he attended Tennessee Tech University where he received many accolades for his performance in football and track eventually being inducted into the TTU Athletics hall of Fame. It was at TTU where he met and married his wife Nan and began starting their family.

After college he eventually received his Masters and Doctorate in Fisheries at Auburn University. The head of the Department at the time was a man named Dr. Homer Swingle. Rudy joined the faculty at Auburn and spent the remainder of his carrier as an International Aquaculture Specialist. He spent much of his carrier either traveling or living internationally having lived in the Philippines, Indonesia and China. He always attributed his opportunities and success to Swingle and the other colleagues at Auburn from that era.

When not traveling he loved the physical work of managing the family property south of Auburn on Chewacla Creek. He has imported trees, various flowers and most importantly, azaleas from all over the south. This was his creation and he could spend hours showing off his plants and telling of the scientific names and where each plant came from.

The family will arrange for a Celebration of Life in the coming weeks the details of which will be forthcoming. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Alzheimer's Association; https://www.alz.org/ or Tunnel to Towers; https://t2t.org/.