Rudolf Baum, a native of Germany who came to America in 1938 in the face of Hitler’s rise to power, served in the U.S. Army in Europe in World War II and became a successful businessman, died Saturday, May 19, 2007. He was 93 years old and a resident of The Brentmoor Apartments in University City at the time of his passing.

Rabbi Howard Kaplansky of United Hebrew Congregation officiated at Mr. Baum’s funeral service at the Bellerive Funeral Home, where Mr. Baum’s daughter, Carol B. Lundgren and son Charles Baum also spoke, sharing warm memories of their father, who was remembered for his kindness and sunny disposition, among family members, his many friends and business associates through the years.

Mr. Baum was born June 28, 1913 in Frankfurt, Germany, where his family’s apartment “was in the heart of the city, near the Grand Opera House, and he grew up immersed in high European culture,” said his son Charles Baum at the funeral service last week. “His fondest memories included his beloved mother taking him to concerts and the opera, a legacy of which drove us nuts as he listened, loudly, to Saturday at the Metropolitan Opera, each weekend.” He added that Mr. Baum “was raised to speak fluent German, English and French and also had a passing knowledge of Latin, Greek and Spanish.”

Charles Baum pointed out that his father had been interested in a career in the arts, but was discouraged from doing so by his father, who suggested that he study law. He studied international law at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, where he was attached to the Czech Embassy at the League of Nations, and served as an official translator.

Charles Baum recalled of his father, “For most of his life, he would not speak of Germany nor of the horrors that happened to his extended family. He did see Hitler speak in the early 1930s and thought him to be a lunatic. Only much later would he share the pain of his uncles and aunts, his grandmother and others, and only very warily did he go back to Frankfurt in the mid-1980s as part of a formal reconciliation process.”

Mr. Baum left Germany for America on March 30, 1938, just months before Kristallnacht, which would launch the active, physical phase of the Holocaust. Many of his close relatives remained in Germany and perished in the Holocaust. Mr. Baum joined the family business in Fort Worth, Tex., and later, in El Paso, Mr. Baum met and married his wife of 63 years, Phyllis Baum. The couple eloped during the war as many couples did during that period in America. Charles Baum read excerpts of a letter Mr. Baum had sent to his wife’s parents, explaining their decision to elope, based on their feeling that they “did not want to spend any more time not married to each other.”

Mr. Baum enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1940 and spent five years in the U.S. Army, where he was attached to the Air Force.

Mr. Baum served with great distinction during World War II as a classification officer and later as a member of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey. Carol Lundgren told the Jewish Light that her father had insisted that an African-American soldier would be a full member of his military staff, which was rare in the days before the armed services were integrated in 1947.

In her remarks at the service, Lundgren described her father, who had been given the nickname “Rudeye” by a late family friend, Harry Frank, as one who “truly loved every part of life. Most of all, he loved people — his family, friends, business associates, army buddies, even total strangers became his friend within minutes.”

After a brief time in Houston, Mr. Baum and his family moved to St. Louis, where he started his successful business career, first as the owner of a Rayco auto seat cover franchise in the 1950s. He later founded the Metropolitan School of Automation, a five-state educational chain, and after a heart attack in 1969, he sold the business and started a new career selling advertising specialties.

Mr. Baum was a founding member of Temple Emanuel and served on the congregation’s first curriculum committee for its religious school. Mr. Baum was a member of many service clubs and was a past Kiwanis Club president. He was also a supporter of the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.

Mr. Baum is survived by his wife, Phyllis; a daughter, Carol (Dennis) Lundgren; a son Charles (Debi Applebaum) Baum; a grandson, Darren Lundgren, and a granddaughter, Andrea Baum. Following the funeral service, a military honor guard marched to the flag-draped casket and solemnly removed the American flag, folded it and presented it to Phyllis Baum in gratitude for Mr. Baum’s distinguished military service. Entombment followed the service at the Bellerive Cemetery, 740 North Mason Road. Memorial contributions are preferred to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, P.O. Box 90988, Washington, DC 20090, or the Saint Louis Symphony, 718 North Grand Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63103. Messages of condolence may be left at forevercemeteries.com.