J. T. Rutherford

J T Rutherford (May 30, 1921 – November 6, 2006), was an American lawyer and World War II veteran who served as a Democratic United States Congressional Representative for 4 terms from 1955 to 1963. He previously served as a state legislator from the state of Texas.

Early life and career He was born to James Thaddeus Rutherford and the former Nancy Lillian Johnson in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In 1934, his family relocated to Odessa, Texas, where he attended public schools.

World War II He served as an enlisted man in the United States Marine Corps from 1942 to 1946, of which twenty-eight months were spent overseas. He was awarded the Purple Heart. As an assault amphibian vehicle crewman, he landed in the first waves on D-Day at Tarawa, Saipan, where he was wounded, and Tinian. He retired as a major in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.

Business career From 1946 to 1947, Rutherford studied at San Angelo College in San Angelo. He then transferred to Sul Ross State College in Alpine, which he attended from 1947 to 1948. From 1948 to 1950, he attended Baylor Law School in Waco, Texas.

In 1948, Rutherford married the former Sara Jane Armstrong, and the couple had three children, Cleo Ann, Charles Lane Rutherford, and Jane Ellen. but voted in favor of the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

He was the first chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Parks. He was awarded the U.S. Department of Interior's Conservation Service Award in 1962 for his efforts to spearhead conservation legislation including laws that created a new national seashore on Padre Island, Cape Cod National Seashore, and Point Reyes in California.

Rutherford's district was the old jumbo 16th district, Midland being its eastmost point and El Paso at its westmost. It also stretched hundreds of miles along the border with Mexico. The 19 counties it embraced covered 42,067 square miles—making it geographically larger than Ohio or Tennessee, among other states.

Later career and death After leaving Congress, he formed J.T. Rutherford and Associates, a government relations consulting firm. He was a director of the Gonzales Warm Springs Foundation for Crippled Children, which was established in 1943 in Gonzales County, Texas. He was also a Shriner, another group which promotes the welfare of crippled children.

Death Rutherford died of complications of Alzheimer's disease in Arlington, Virginia, where he spent his later years.