Donald J. Rutherford, 73, of New Port Richey passed away peacefully on May 14, 2022, at the Rucki Hospice Care Center. He was the son of John and Mabel Jaeckel Rutherford, growing up on a farm in Factoryville, PA. He played football at Lackawanna Trail High School and was also musically gifted in singing, piano, and drums. While serving in the U.S. Air Force, he managed the radio tower on Monkey Mountain, east of Da Nang, Vietnam. Upon discharge, he attended Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, graduating in 1977. His pharmacy career spanned both retail and hospital settings in Pennsylvania and Ohio with retirement from Morton Plant North Bay Hospital in New Port Richey. Don enjoyed golfing, bicycling, and swimming in his spare time and was an avid Bucs fan.
He is survived by his children Erica and her wife Annie Rutherford, Cy Navratil, and Brian Rutherford, stepmother Nellie Rutherford Clark, siblings Bonnie Rutherford Austin, John Stoddard, Debbie Jo Knoop, and Geoffrey Stoddard, former spouse, and friend Barbara Cutter, as well as several nieces and nephews.
Funeral arrangements are being made by Dobies Funeral Home with interment at the Florida National Cemetery on May 31, 2022, at 11:30 am.
Donations in Donald’s memory may be made to the Humane Society of Pasco County or The American Cancer Society.
Ralph Stonier
May 22, 2022, 1:38 am
I am so sorry for your loss.
John Stoddard
June 2, 2022, 2:23 pm
I am lucky today to have had Donald as my big, older brother. We had a special relationship growing up in youth. Don shared many special moments with me, purposely imparting confidence, brotherly trust and often just having plain fun at our family farm in Marshbrook, Benton TWP, PA. He often said to me, that I was just like he used to be – a fat little kid – and he was going to help me grow into a fine athlete, like he became. What confidence he gave me. Wow, did I have a great big wonderful step-brother. Thank you Don.
I am proud of Don’s service in the USAF, his professional career as a pharmacist and his ever-present sensitivity to those less fortunate. I am sorry that we seldom communicated for almost 30 years. As I told Don, that gap never weakened my affection for him. Donald, forgive for our shortcomings.
Donald, we celebrate and applaud, sometimes with tears, your love for us, your inventive sense of humor, created by that big, open-minded brain of yours, that you and Barbara passed on to your two lovely daughters, about whom you spoke so proudly.
And now that you are on the other side of life, as it says in the Bible, you now know and understand God’s plan, which we cannot know while on our side of this earth, but to which we look forward as heaven where we will unite with you again. I hope you are now united peacefully, happily with your Mom and Dad, Nana and all your Rutherford aunts, uncles and cousins. We thank God for you and all you have made possible in our lives.
We love you Donald, my brother. Your step-brother, John Stoddard.