The former owner and manager of Rutter Orchards, with a long history of community service, Ted Rutter, has died.
His many years of service to the community were reflected in many roles and accomplishments in many community organizations.
Among those was the Belleville Police Services Board where he was chair for six years, and received the Volunteer Citizen of the Year Award in 1989.
Rutter served as a long time Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Prince Edward County Board of Education and president and trustee of the Board of Governors Picton Hospital Board.
Rutter was born on a farm in Bloomfield in 1926 to Barbara and Frank Rutter (deceased) with siblings Clifford, Marion, Leo, Leon and Rita (all deceased). After growing up in ‘the County’, he joined the Naval Reserve in 1944 and served on the HMCS Georgian until the end of the war. Upon return he attended Guelph University to study agriculture and met the love of his life; they married in 1950. They moved to Picton (where he managed a bowling alley), then Brighton, Belleville (working for Quaker Oats) and then purchased his homestead fruit farm in Bloomfield where he managed Rutter Orchards (with its associated canning fruit factory business) until retirement. Upon retirement, Pam and Ted resided in Belleville for 18 years, moved to back to Guelph in 2010 and ultimately settled at the VIVA retirement community in Mississauga in 2013.
He served as a long time chair of the Board of Trustees for the Prince Edward County Board of Education from 1970-1981 and president and trustee of the Board of Governors Picton Hospital Board (1974-1986). He joined the Freemasons which eventually led to him acquiring his 35th Free Masonry degree and became the District Deputy Grand Master. He was the chair and member of the Loyalist College Board of Governors (1988-1994) and chaired the Belleville General Hospital Foundation which raised millions of dollars for local health needs. He was the chair of the Prince Edward Fruit Growers Association, an active member of the Ontario Tender Fruit Marketing Board, chair of the Unemployment Insurance Board of Referees and member of the Ontario Workman’s Compensation Board. He was the chair of the Belleville Police Services Board (2002-2008) and received the Volunteer Citizen of the Year Award (1989). He said that his reward was always seeing the satisfaction in people’s faces when he was able to help.
Friends are invited to join the family for a funeral service at Burke Funeral Home, 150 Church Street, Belleville on Friday, September 8 at 12:30 p.m. A private graveside service will follow.
In lieu of flowers, a memorial donation to the Belleville General Hospital Foundation would be appreciated by the family.
