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FEATURE FOR
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 3, 2004
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Bob Rutledge – Brighten the Corner Where You Are |
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Bob Rutledge takes a
break in his office at Bob Rutledge and Associates,
Inc.
McKenzie’s Bob Rutledge, owner of Bob Rutledge and
Associates advertising specialties company, is known
also for his countywide civic leadership. An active
member and past president of the McKenzie Lions Club,
he is also a board member of both the Carroll County
Chamber of Commerce and the McKenzie Industrial
Development Board, of which he is Vice-chairman, and he
is an elder in the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church
in McKenzie.
Bob’s robust work ethic is the product of the hardy
example of his parents’, Sibyl and Lois: besides
raising cotton and soybeans on their 24-acre farm, both
worked at Brown Shoe Company in Dyer for over 30 years.
Especially inspiring was his father’s determination in
a job well done. Born with just one arm and half his
body smaller than the other so that he walked with a
limp, Bob says, “Dad did things a lot of two-handed men
wouldn’t do.”
Born and raised in 1947 in the small town where his
parents worked, it was the farm - six acres of cotton
and four of beans or corn – that helped pay Bob’s way
through college, along with an honors scholarship that
required he maintain a B average.
“Right now six acres wouldn’t buy the books,” he
declares.
His brother, Willard, six years older than he and an
agriculture student at the University of Tennessee at
Martin when Bob was around 14 years old, provided Bob
with spending money for cleaning his dorm room on
weekends. When Willard married during his last couple
of years at the college, a farm hired him as a team
with Bob, paying him both young men’s wages. The two
milked 56 Holstein cows each morning before spending
the rest of the day hauling silage.
During the summer of his sophomore year of high school,
Bob started working at Liberty Supermarket for 60 cents
an hour from 7:00 in the morning until noon, clearing
out rotting produce and sorting cans in the bottle
room. The following summer of ‘65, still working at the
supermarket, he added a second job at Dyer Fruit Box
Company working from one p.m. until 8:30 for $1.20 an
hour making peach crates, for a total 70-hour workweek.
“That was my first experience in an assembly line job,”
relates Bob sagely as though the experience was an
education in itself. He describes whipping wires around
thin slabs seasoned in the hot dryer before which he
worked, as sweltering heat rolled from the furnace to
hang heavily around him. Sometimes his breaks were
spent catching up when the crates came too swiftly for
him to keep up with other workers.
“It was an interesting job; it made me want to go to
college in the fall,” Bob says pointedly, adding
exposure to a few days of factory work could influence
other young people to appreciate the value of
education. “It certainly worked for me.”
He had graduated high school third in the Dyer High
School class of 1965, missing salutatorian by 26/100 of
a point.
“They did let me sing at graduation,” he says brightly.
Though no one else in his family was musically
inclined, Bob began singing as a small child with roots
in southern gospel. He recalls in cheerful reverie
Fourth-Sunday singing conventions that took place in
the big upstairs courtroom of the Trenton courthouse.
“Those were happy days,” he smiles.
Although his father was a Methodist and his mother a
“foot-washing” Baptist, Bob says he’s spent his whole
life in the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination,
beginning with Mt. Olive Cumberland Presbyterian church
that lay across the field from the Rutledge home.
“My faith (denomination) was more geographic than
theological,” he grins, “but I’m very happy in the
Cumberland Presbyterian Church; I’ve been there all my
life.”
The same summer that claimed 70 hours of each week in
toil, Bob joined the “Crusaders”, singing lead in
the gospel quartet that produced gospel singer Roger
Mullins.
When he entered Bethel College in the fall as a
music/Christian education major, the quartet was busy
every Friday and Saturday evening, Sunday morning and
Sunday night, after which Bob was required
to maintain his school assignments. When the group
decided to go on tour a year later, Bob was forced to
decide between singing and college. Two factors weighed
heavily on his mind in making the decision: “It was the
height of the Vietnam War; I knew if I took off, someone
(Uncle Sam) would be calling my name. And I needed to
get my education; if I was out of town I couldn’t do
that.”
In ’66 Bob purchased a 1947 Chevrolet for $50 plus a
1939 John Deere tractor. Originally two-tone green, he
had Gene Condry paint the car gold and had a black
vinyl top put on in ’67. Later on, the car was
repainted maroon.
“I’d had the car since ’66, then seven years ago I sold
it to a guy; it had also been his first car,” Bob
relates, telling how the gentleman had wanted to
restore the car with his son but had died of cancer
before the project was underway. Later, his widow
called Bob to see if he wanted to buy back his first
car.
The vehicle is now being readied for a major
restoration, included the installation of a bigger,
newer, 350 engine V-8 engine with air conditioner and
an automatic transmission.
“The old Babbitt rod engine could be idling and throw a
rod,” Bob recalls.
The new version will sport a Mustang II front end and a
1990 Camaro rear end. The interior will be detailed
down to new plush leather seats with the burl wood dash
emulated by faux painting. He spends some time at his
computers trying different colors on a mock-up of the
car, but he thinks he will settle on candy apple for
the bottom of the car with a beige top.
Having no desire to “park the car under trees and wipe
on it all day”, Bob instead says the vehicle will be a
“comfortable car to go in”, planning various excursions
when the restoration is complete, a job he contends
will be done “little by little.”
The summer before his senior year, in 1968, Bob married
a lady as pretty as her name, Cheriadeth. The two had
met when the Memphis girl traveled to Dyer for an
annual convocation of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church.
“She came to Dyer for one of those events and my cousin
who was from Dresden (Jimmy Culbert) and I flipped to
see who would get to ask her out. I told her I lost,
but I won,” he says sincerely. “We dated from there
on.”
Cheriadeth attended Miller Hawkins Business College in
Memphis before marrying Bob. At Bethel, the couple
moved into the 1950’s temporary “barracks” that in 1969
provided housing to married students. The drafty, one
bedroom apartment cost $22 a month in contrast with the
$80 to $100 heating bill the prior tenant paid.
Bob and Cheriadeth put clear plastic over all the
windows and bought two $10 carpets to cover floors that
had cracks so wide “you could sweep trash into them.”
“A pilot light would keep you warm in there,” Bob
declares.
After graduation, Bob’s goal to be a minister of music
and Christian education director was remolded somewhat
when he accepted a position as associate pastor of a
church in Longview, Texas, where he also led music
while Cheriadeth was secretary.
While still working with the church, he began teaching
music in the public school, eventually teaching 200
seventh, eighth and ninth graders among four classes.
Disillusioned with the “pittance of a salary”, even
though, he says, “Texas was one of highest paying
states at that time at $5,800 a year,” the couple
returned home to Tennessee.
“That was a turning point in our life,” says Bob.
In Jackson, Bob began working at the Proctor and Gamble
plant (the Pringle’s factory) as employee #26 in the
new plant, where he was a quality control technician.
“I still have a can with the first Pringles’ product
ever done,” he says, gesturing to a table upon which
the can is displayed in his office.
“I never could get adjusted,” he says pointedly, “I
tried to get transferred to a sales position, but they
said they had too much invested in me (in my current
position); so I went to work for their competitor,
Kimberly Clark, in sales. And I loved it: I really,
really enjoyed it.”
Bob excelled in the position, selling products all over
West Tennessee outside Memphis, from Savannah to Paris
and Waverly to the outskirts of Memphis. He was
recognized as an outstanding salesman by the company,
earning such designations as “Eagle in the Marketplace”
and “Lion among Men”.
“I was proud of the work we did,” he declares.
Already serving as President of Bethel College Alumni,
after working at Proctor and Gamble for two years and
Kimberly Clark four, Bob was asked by then-president of
Bethel College, William Odom, to work as development
officer for the college. He assumed the position of
vice president of development for seven years, leaving
in 1983 to become lease manager at Gary Simmons’ auto
dealership before, in May 1985, beginning his own
company.
He had met Russell Chandler, a former schoolteacher
from Dresden who in 1958 had delved into the
advertising business, when he would call on Bob at
Bethel.
“I would buy donor recognition gifts from him,” says
Bob, indicating an attractive ceramic trivet emblazoned
with the Bethel College logo. He explains he had
started “gift clubs” to elevate the level of giving to
the college: members of the “Founders Club”, donating a
dollar for every year since the college was founded in
1842, were rewarded with a trivet which was a means of
“saying thank you while reminding them of the college
often.”
Members of the “Presidents Club” donated $1,000 or
more; people in the “Cumberland Club” gave $500 or
more; and those in the “Log Cabin Society” placed the
college in their wills; a form of deferred giving.
“Bethel’s been the beneficiary of lots of that work,”
Bob continues, alluding to the importance of helping
people identify their philanthropic niche. “People
liked the philosophy; most people want to give.”
Mr. Chandler, at 78 years old, was ready to retire at a
point in time when Bob was gnashing at the bit to
return to sales.
“Lots of people have wanted to buy my business, but
I’ll give it to you,” the old gentleman told Bob.
“He only gave me about four accounts; he had cut back
and hadn’t kept up his business for several years,” Bob
says with a mixture of irony and sincere appreciation
for the gift of his benefactor. “Mr. Chandler was a
genuine southern gentleman; he was kind and considerate
of his customers and of his product and that’s key.”
Cheriadeth, office manager for “Bob Rutledge and
Associates” has been “a valuable partner from day one,”
Bob states sincerely. “She’s sort of kept my feet on
the ground; she’s more conservative than I am; I’m more
impulsive. She sometimes says, ‘We can’t do that right
now.’”
The business has grown from its original location in
the Highland Mall – where Bob had also taken on a
package shipping enterprise with U.P.S. in order to
help pay for a secretary – to a sizeable complex
located near the intersection of Highland Avenue and
Cedar Street, across from the new McKenzie Funeral
Home.
The gospel favorite, “Brighten the Corner where You
Are,” became Bob’s theme song as he renovated the old
radio station where his main office is located. Aside
from having had “ten million cigarettes smoked in it”
the building came with several thousand albums and
singles. In 1991, the first storage facility was built
on adjacent property, followed by two more buildings as
each filled up. When those, too, became filled, the
couple built more storage facilities on Highway 22.
Another building on the property was renovated to house
“Carroll County Trophy and Office Supplies,” a
carryover from the Bethel bookstore which Bob managed
along with a partner for many years.
His long-time friend, Jamie Foster, who died last year,
was owner of the screen-printing shop in the main
building which is now being managed by Bob and
Cheriadeth.
Bob acknowledges business isn’t always as brisk as he
would like it to be: “Sales are always feast or famine,
but you’ve got to go through rain to enjoy sunshine. We
have a fun business; the last two years have been
difficult business wise, because of the economy. Our
business has been affected as much as everybody else’s;
it’ll be more fun when the economy perks back up and
people start advertising on a regular basis.”
Some time during all this, Bob continues, he and four
other local investors and other investors built the
Briarwood Motel, upon which they recently spent “a ton
of money” to upgrade to Best Western.
“I think the motel was a good addition to McKenzie,” he
says, “We’ve got the largest national chain in our
community. It helps to have online reservations for
visitors, and it’s a clean, comfortable place for
people who are visiting to stay in.”
And much of his time during the past several years has
been spent toward the building of the new First
Cumberland Presbyterian Church on Highland Avenue near
the Highway 22 Bypass.
“We were chairs of the fundraising committee,” said
Bob, regarding the group that raised over a million
dollars for the endeavor. Already a beautiful edifice
with old and new combined with the inclusion of the
tall stained-glass windows from the original church,
Bob hopes “one of these days” that the church members
are able to build a sanctuary in the front of the new
structure to take the place of the combined family
life/sanctuary in use at the present time. He pulls out
a picture of a similarly designed building faced with a
towering, awe inspiring structure that houses the
sanctuary of his dreams.
Another of his passions is “Leadership Carroll County”,
a Chamber of Commerce project aimed at education youth
and adult classes of current and potential community
leaders.
“I’ve been doing leadership since 1990,” he says,
“We’ve gone through 15 classes now. I think it’s a
worthwhile project that has already paid off and will
pay off in the years to come.”
Bob was also a member of the first WestStar class of
1990, after which he became a member of the board.
WestStar broadens the scope of lessons learned at the
county level.
Closer to home, Bob was recognized in January this year
at the Promotional Products Association International’s
annual trade show in Las Vegas for attaining his M.A.S.,
an industry certification earned by less than one
percent of his peers, with only 317 of some 50,000
distributors, salespeople and suppliers in the industry
achieving the M.A.S. standard.
“That’s quite an accomplishment for an old country boy
from Dyer,” says Bob, pronouncing “Dyer” colloquially
as “Dar”.
Bob and Cheriadeth had one child during their marriage
of 35-years-and-counting. Trent, who was born March 2,
1981, recently graduated from Middle Tennessee State
University with a degree in computer information
technology and has already been employed by the Dell
computer company in Nashville.
While in college, Trent played second seed for the Blue
Raiders tennis team, a sport taught him by his father.
“He’s passed me a long time ago,” says Bob, who himself
once played three or four times a week and who played
with Kimberly Clark customers years ago.
He partnered with Trent in MTSU’s Pro-Am fundraiser
tournament the first weekend of September last year.
“We had a good time,” he smiles, rounding out the
facets of a life well lived.
Upon the wall of his office, etched in plaque
commemorating his honor in being selected businessman
of the year in 1986, are the words of Nobel peace prize
winner, theologian, musician, physician & humanitarian,
Dr. Albert Schweitzer, that seem well to define Bob:
“I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing
I do know, the only ones among you who will really be
happy are those who have sought & found how to serve.” |
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2004
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2003
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2002
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2001
Feature
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Phone (731) 352-3323 or
Fax (731) 352-3322
washburn@mckenziebanner.com
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