Henry M. Rutledge (1943-2025)

Henry died at his home in Salisbury, MD on February 14 while surrounded by his family. Click here for the obituary in Delmarva Now.

 

Henry came to Princeton from Hagerstown, MD and the Saint James School. At Princeton, Henry roomed with Tom Adams, JP Godich, Mike Janis, Wayne Hewitt, Ken Boudwin, Jim Folts, and George Blaustein. He majored in English and ate at Terrace Club. After Princeton, he attended the University of Maryland Law School and practiced law in Salisbury, MD.

Nassau Herald

Additional Memories and Tributes

Tom Adams:

Henry roomed with me, JP Godich, and several other guys in our upperclass years. Henry was a true Southern Gentleman, a man of letters, and a genuine Princetonian. Henry and JP both came to my wedding in Boulder, CO. Over the years, his handwritten letters were in elegant prose flavored with his dry sense of humor. Henry, JP, and I had a tradition of singing Old Nassau at the end of the night whenever we got together, wherever we were. When they visited me in Northern New Mexico, we surprised the locals by singing Old Nassau after dinner under the portal outside the restaurant. When JP organized an expedition to climb Mt. Princeton in the 80’s, Henry and Mary Louisa, joined me, JP, and Jim Folts, and our wives for the climb. We guys made it pretty far, almost “within arm’s reach” of the summit. Henry, JP, and I attended our 40th. It rained and my rental car got stuck in the mud behind Terrace Club. Henry didn’t hesitate, wearing his reunion outfit and dress shoes, to slog through the mud to the back of the car and help push. In the end, he was covered with mud, but we did get the car out.

 

Henry sent a letter in early 2016 to encourage all of us to attend our 50th. He said, “It seems extraordinary that 2 months from now many of us will be frolicking in silly costumes, and even more extraordinary that it was half a century ago that we graduated…. We will definitely miss anyone who can’t attend and raise a glass and a song in your honor….” He enclosed an old photograph of “the four skinniest ’66 seniors,” with Henry and JP in cap and gown, me and Jim in suits.

 

He ended by saying that a friend had given him an old PU album that included the “1905 song.” Henry wrote: “It is lyrical and sentimental, and in the spirit of nostalgia I enclose the last stanza:

 

            But more than trees and songs and walls

            Has Princeton for her men;

            She casts her spell upon our hearts,

            And we are young again.

 

I am really looking forward to seeing the men who were boys 54 years ago.

Go Tiger, at least one more Time. [signed] Henry”

To Henry, Go Tiger! We raise a glass and a song in your honor.

 

 

John Paul Godich:

I first met Henry some 62 plus years ago in Mid-September 1962. He was the last arrival of our group of suite-mates in the 7th entry of Patton Hall. A rather unassuming modestly dressed 5’9”,140lbs. Time would reveal so much more. His full name was Henry Middleton Rutledge Vi, a lineal descendant of two signers of the Declaration of Independence and one of the Constitution. The scion of a family that owned a plantation in South Carolina complete with an ante-bellum mansion framed by an avenue of live oaks complete with Spanish Moss. As it happens, the bellum was the Revolutionary War.

 
But that’s just the curriculum vitae. The person to whom they were appended was the best friend a person could want: cheerful, agreeable with a great sense of humor and an openness to adventure (often despite what prudence might have counseled). After starting as suitemates, we remained good friends, became club mates and senior year roommates. That year we struggled together as would-be lawyers to write four hopefully cogent papers on subjects tangentially related to Constitutional Interpretation.
 
If anything, we became closer friends after Princeton. In law school we began a tradition of joining together for Big 3 weekends. A tradition we maintained with fair and always enjoyable regularity until 2022. We gathered for weddings:  Wayne Hewitt in 1968, Tom Adams in 1970 and each other in 1974. Henry was my Best Man.
 
The spirit of adventure probably reached its zenith in the belated “Grand Tour” we took together in 1971. We did it our way: three weeks in August, five cities, Icelandic Airlines, Eurailpasses, and a currency devaluation that left us penniless in London for two days. A good sense of humor was essential when you are suddenly broke in a (surprisingly) foreign land.
 
Perhaps the best example of the delightful combination of spirit of adventure and sense of humor occurred on a trip to Shea Stadium for a Mets game during the blissful interval between finals and commencement. The “car rule” having been temporarily rescinded, Henry appeared with a jet black 1947 straight-8 Packard, christened “ the black
Panther.”  Cunard was right:  “Getting there is half the fun.”  We learned: “Getting back alive is even better.”  We had plotted our path without regard to finances and on our return as we approached the tollgate for the Goethals Bridge it appeared that we might have to spend the rest of our days on Staten Island. In addition, we would miss the culmination of four years’ labor. Fortunately. We were able to scrounge together the exact toll of which twenty cents were pennies. Henry always claimed that upon the twentieth penny being digested in the toll booth’s plastic funnel, he heard an audible belch.
 
God Speed my friend! May all your travels be enjoyable.

 

Mike Janis:

Met Henry, JP, Wayne, George Blaustein and others as new roommates sharing the 2nd floor in Patton Hall. 
Did not take long for alcohol to be introduced to ease the pain of constant studying and crappy food at Commons. 
 
Henry, JP, George and I never missed a home Tiger football game. We even made a road trip to Harvard and sat in a pouring rain enduring Harvard beating us.
 
I was designated driver (Uber would have been safer) and after several days of Partying in Boston, we made it back to campus in one piece. 
 
Henry's family history included his great/great/great/great grandfather signing the Declaration Of Independence on behalf of South Carolina. 
 
I believe his family still owned a Plantation in South Carolina. while he was at Princeton, of course without slave labor. 
 
Some of you may recall, I was married with 2 kids while at Princeton and lived one block off campus on Spring Street.
 
Henry and JP would come to visit often.
 
After Princeton, Henry and JP and I shared a love for thoroughbred horse racing and would convene from time to time at Saratoga, Monmouth racetrack, Belmont and Churchill Downs. 
 
Henry, we will miss you!

 

Jim Folts:

Henry was the quintessential Southern gentleman, charming and gracious in a very authentic way. He was a powerful listener and a quiet speaker. He was also a sportsman, and I remember fondly his hunting hat — a crushable wool felt affair that nicely complemented an occasional cheroot when not in the field. If memory serves, when several of us joined a university expedition to summit Mt. Princeton in the 80s, the Hat accompanied Henry. By then, it looked a bit like the well-worn Sorting Hat from Harry Potter but without the peak. Unlike Tom’s recollection of those events, I’m pretty sure, looking back over forty years, that we made the summit, and well ahead of many in younger classes.

 

Wayne Hewitt:

Henry and JP both came to my wedding in October 1968, and I recall that we had a bit of a touch football game in the empty apartment that my wife and I were preparing to move into. We managed to fall against one of the interior doors hard enough to put the doorstop thru the door. When my wife and I moved out 2 years later, we had to pay for the damage to the door and I explained that "we fell against the door". My wife wondered what the rental agent thought we were doing when that happened!
 

When Henry was on his way to our wedding in Pittsburgh he decided to buy me a case of Iron City beer in cans. He carefully wrapped the case as a present in Maryland before he boarded the plane to Pittsburgh, but by the time airport security had inspected the package there wasn't much left of the fancy wrapping!

 

Andy Butz, who attended the funeral service:

Nelson Hendler and I attended the Memorial Service for our departed classmate, Henry Middleton Rutledge V, which was organized by his wife of 50+ years, Mary Louisa Rutledge, his two sons Donald and Macon, and his younger sister, Eleanor, at the Asbury United Methodist Church, here in Salisbury, Maryland.

 

There was a good-sized gathering, although somewhat dwarfed by the size of the church, which is one of the largest in this County, with a magnificent pipe organ and very able organist.  The ceremony was not long or elaborate, with focus on Henry as a good husband, father and neighbor.

 

During the following reception, Nelson and I got introduced to the family, who all appeared to appreciate our appearance on behalf of his Princeton class, and got to know a bit more about Henry's career as a local lawyer here and later a state administrative law judge.

 

As you may know, Maryland is sort of a "small town," and there were a number of our contemporaries at the ceremony and reception who knew or were connected to people Nelson had known from his youth and career in the greater Baltimore area.

 

As is often the case, the weather was beautiful shore weather today, and a fitting occasion for this farewell.

If you have photos or memories that you wish to share, please send them to the '66 Memorial Team (66_MemorialTeam@tiger1966.org). We will add them to this page.