Sue Rugge

Sue Rugge, an early entrepreneur in the independent information research industry, died Saturday of complications from a perforated ulcer at an Oakland hospital. She was 58.

Ms. Rugge's "The Information Broker's Handbook" is considered a definitive guide to establishing, running and marketing a successful information business.

Ms. Rugge saw that California's engineering and then-emerging high-tech industries had critical information needs to fuel their research and development efforts.

In 1971 she co-founded Information Unlimited, a Berkeley-based independent research firm. In 1979, she established Information on Demand, a pioneering full-service information company offering electronic, telephone and library research in all subjects, as well as document delivery from a global network of libraries.

In the mid-1980s, her Information on Demand attracted the attention of British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who eventually acquired the company and managed it through one of his holdings, Pergamon Press.

Born in Oakland and raised in Burlingame, Ms. Rugge graduated from Burlingame High School in 1959 and went to work in the fledgling electronics industry in Silicon Valley.

Initially a corporate librarian for Dalmo Victor and then the Singer Business Machine Co., she launched Information Unlimited from her Berkeley home in 1971.

Her major clients for Information on Demand included such companies as IBM research divisions, AT&T Bell Labs, Xerox, NASA- Ames, Stanford Research Institute, Rand Corp., Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, Upjohn, Burroughs Welcome, Proctor and Gamble, PG&E and Chevron.

Ms. Rugge also was an accomplished pianist, gardener and chef who delighted in hosting garden parties at her Hiller Highlands home, which was completely destroyed by the Oakland Hills fire of October 1991, and rebuilt two years later.

She was also very active in community service work as a volunteer counselor for an Oakland-based organization of women on welfare who are trying to enter the job market.

She cooked meals and delivered them, several times a week, to a battered women's shelter. She was active in a Bay Area group called Women Entrepreneurs and she did a considerable amount of pro bono medical research work on behalf of Project Inform, the AIDS group.

"She was extraordinarily generous," said her longtime friend and colleague, Reva Basch, "not only with her financial resources, but with her time, expertise, and unflagging friendship."

Ms. Rugge is survived by her husband, Dr. Hank Rugge of Oakland; two sons, Jim McKinney of Oakland and Bill McKinney of Visalia; and a sister, Beth Callow-Soles of Phoenix.

A memorial service is planned for early July in Oakland.

The family requests that any contributions be made to the Women's Refuge, Box 3298, Berkeley, Calif. 94703; or the Pro Choice Education Fund, California Abortion Rights Action League, 330 Townsend St., Suite 204, San Francisco, Calif. 94107.