[2] After becoming a refugee in the wake of World War II, he studied botany and zoology at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.
[1] Rubtzoff immigrated to the United States in 1949, and subsequently attended the University of San Francisco.
He later became a field associate at the California Academy of Sciences and worked closely with John Thomas Howell.
[1] Rubtzoff, Howell, and Peter Raven co-authored the 1958 A Flora of San Francisco, California, considered a thorough publication.
He made important contributions to The Jepson Manual, specifically about species of rush.