Topeka ? Retired Kansas Adjutant Gen. James F. Rueger died Saturday after being hospitalized for cancer. He was 67.

Maj. Gen. Rueger, the state’s 32nd adjutant general, was named head of the Kansas National Guard in 1990. He retired in February 1999.

News of Rueger’s death was announced Saturday at a gathering in Manhattan of more than 300 members of the National Guard Association of Kansas, said Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the current adjutant general.

“The air went out of the room when I made the announcement, and we had a moment of silence,” Bunting said.

Rueger was born Sept. 24, 1937, in Axtell. He graduated from the former Beattie High School in 1955 and completed a Bachelor of Science degree in 1987 from Kansas State University. He began his military career in 1957, receiving basic and advanced U.S. Army training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. He completed the Kansas Army National Guard’s officer candidate school and was commissioned a second lieutenant on Oct. 25, 1962.

As adjutant general, Rueger was responsible for the training and combat readiness of nearly 9,000 soldiers and airmen of the Kansas Army National Guard and the Kansas Air National Guard. He was inducted into the Kansas National Guard Hall of Fame board of governors in November.

A spokeswoman for the family in Beattie said Rueger had been diagnosed with cancer last summer but had felt well enough in February to attend a welcome-home ceremony in Manhattan for the 130th Kansas Army National Guard field artillery battalion based in Hiawatha.

“He was a man with big passions and an avid athlete,” Bunting said. “When I saw him in February at that return ceremony in Manhattan, he still had that glint in his eye, and he looked great. Maybe a little tired, but we were really excited about him making a full recovery from cancer.

“He’s a fighter, and nobody’s tougher than Jim Rueger.”

Funeral arrangements were pending.