After serving as an enlisted Marine in World War II, he graduated from the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

[5] Though he experienced discrimination at Quantico, he stated his departure was for personal reasons,[5] and the matter was handled quietly.

[4] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), however, was skeptical and put him under long-term surveillance as a suspected communist, eventually accumulating eight volumes of material on the Rudder family by 1967.

[4][7] Settling in Washington, D.C., John Rudder - a Quaker[4] - and his wife Doris became anti-war and anti-discrimination activists.

As told to Morley Safer on the 60 Minutes segment "'Sins' of the Fathers ...", which aired on March 1, 1981, she was working as a file clerk for the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations, which was looking into the murders of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.[7] In order for the chairman to obtain the documents he wanted, all committee employees had to get a security clearance.