Hans Ruesch, writer and Grand Prix winner, dies at 94

Hans Ruesch

Hans Ruesch, a successful Swiss racecar driver in the years before World War II who later became a writer of well-received novels of adventure, two of which became Hollywood films, died on Monday at his home in Lugano, Switzerland. He was 94.

The cause was cancer, his daughter, Vivian Ruesch Mellon, said.

Mr. Ruesch was believed to have been one of the last living drivers from the glamorous, dangerous days of European Grand Prix racing in the 1920s and ’30s. His novels include “Top of the World" (Harper, 1950), about Eskimo life; “The Racer" (Ballantine, 1953); and “South of the Heart: A Novel of Modern Arabia" (Coward-McCann, 1957).

Driving Alfa Romeos and Maseratis, Mr. Ruesch competed in more than 100 races in Europe and South Africa, winning 27. In the late 1930s, he moved to the United States, where he began publishing short fiction in popular magazines. He returned to Europe after World War II, living in various places in France, Italy and Switzerland.

Hans Ruesch was born in Naples, Italy, on May 17, 1913, to a German-speaking Swiss father and an Italian-speaking Swiss mother. (The pronunciation of the family name, Mr. Ruesch’s daughter said, is ROO-esh in Europe, ROOSH in the United States.). NY Times