Ray Rude, who went from doing farm work at age 5 to becoming a multimillionaire benefactor after developing the Duraflex diving board, died yesterday at Stanley, N.D. He was 88.

The Duraflex is the most popular diving board for professional and competition use, according to Recreonics, the company that manufactures it.

Rude also was known as a benefactor to the University of North Dakota, his alma mater. He recently donated $1.75 million to help build the Ina Mae Rude Entrepreneur Center on the UND campus in memory of his late wife.

Rude left Stanley as a teenager and worked as a tool engineer for aircraft companies. In 1948, he developed an aluminum diving board from a discarded airplane wing panel. It led to his Nevada-based Duraflex diving company, which has made thousands of the diving boards used in the Olympics since 1960.

Rude said last year that his diving board business began when he heard a neighbor cursing the rain for preventing the varnish on a wooden springboard from drying in time for a party.

Rude returned to his hometown from Nevada two years ago. Leupp said he donated more $1 million to the Stanley School District.