Jerry Rutledge, a prominent Colorado Springs businessman and a former member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents, died Jan. 9 after complications from surgery. He was 80.

“Jerry was an extraordinary person and he led an extraordinary life. There aren’t very many people like him,” his wife Jan Rutledge said. 

A farm boy at heart, Jerry Rutledge was born Aug. 1, 1944 in Moberly, Mo. to parents Wynne and Bill Rutledge, the eldest of two boys. An all-star high school athlete, he played football, basketball and ran track at Moberly High School, spending his summers on family farms with his John Deere tractor, a pastime he enjoyed until the end of his life, his family said.

He came to Colorado in 1962 to study at the University of Colorado Boulder, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1966, according to his LinkedIn webpage. Between his junior and senior years at the university, Jerry Rutledge leased space at the corner of Pikes Peak Avenue and Tejon Street for his high-end men’s clothing store in downtown Colorado Springs after working for three years with his mentor Joe Borland, the former owner of the Regiment men’s shop in Boulder.

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Borland and Jerry Rutledge became fast friends and the retail business “became a passion,” his son John Rutledge said.

Jerry Rutledge recruited Borland as a partner in his Colorado Springs business, buying Borland out just four months later. Sometime in the 1980s, he changed the shop’s name to bear his own: Rutledge’s. 

Now a mainstay that has run for 58 years, Rutledge’s is the oldest downtown retailer. The business expanded several times over the decades and has occupied various storefronts downtown. Jerry Rutledge purchased the historic Perkins-Shearer Building at 102 N. Tejon St. in 2005 and moved the business into the expanded space, where it still operates today. In April 2015, he opened a second store at The Broadmoor.

“He was very kind and very outgoing. He was a great salesman and he loved to help his clientele,” said Sam Eppley, a friend of Jerry Rutledge’s and the owner of another longtime downtown business, Sparrow Hawk Gourmet Cookware. 

The two met when Eppley was a customer of Jerry Rutledge’s; when Eppley opened his store 46 years ago, Jerry Rutledge offered encouragement and support, and then became a customer of Eppley’s.

“He loved to help people and Jerry was a superb retailer. He understood retail and what it took to make a successful retail establishment. That was an incredible asset for downtown,” Eppley said. “He was so happy to talk to myself and the other retailers about life as a retailer, and how to make it work. We’ve lost somebody not only with a lot of downtown Colorado Springs knowledge, but also a lot of community involvement.”

When he wasn’t running his business, Jerry Rutledge was deeply involved in his community in other ways.

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Among several other boards and clubs, he served for 12 years as a member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents, from 1995-2007, serving as board chairman twice. He was part of a board that moved the University of Colorado hospital to the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. The Gazette is owned by the Anschutz Corp.’s Clarity Media Group.

Jerry Rutledge also served on the UCHealth Board of Directors for eight years.

He was a mentor who took a genuine interest in training his employees and advising them, family, friends and colleagues said.

“Jerry Rutledge was a giant in this community,” said Luke Faricy, vice president of Rutledge’s. Faricy worked with the businessman at his store for 11 years, but knew him long before, since Faricy was in the fourth grade. “… I am eternally grateful for his mentorship and friendship. He had a style about him that can never be replicated.”

John Woods, a Rutledge’s employee who worked with Jerry Rutledge for nearly eight years, recalled the entrepreneur’s desire to help others look and feel their best.

“He always took interest in others and always made everyone feel welcome. He’d spoil everyone who came into the store and make sure they had the best quality,” Woods said.

Jerry Rutledge was a music man, too, with a particular affinity for classical jazz — a love he and Woods shared and bonded over. Woods recalled working Thursdays alone with Jerry Rutledge at the store, when they would take a break from the eclectic music mix that typically played and instead broadcast jazz over the shop speakers.

“We enjoyed that,” Woods said.

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Plans for the future of the retail store downtown aren’t set in stone yet, Rutledge’s family said, but his son plans to get involved.

“We are committed to it thriving and ideally we’d like to have the store remain open,” John Rutledge said.

Jerry Rutledge too spent a lot of time at his family’s vast, 1,000-acre ranch property — 300 acres of dryland hay and 700 acres of pasture land — east of Elbert. He took pride in caring for the land, again on his beloved John Deere tractor, even spending every Sunday with his son for more than two years clearing the property of debris after purchasing it in the early 2000s. 

In his younger years, Jerry Rutledge was also known to head up to the ranch to work after he finished his day job at the retail store. 

“That was his history of growing up on the farm in Missouri,” John Rutledge said. “When it was harvest time or planting, you just did it. … That was sort of ingrained in him.”

With an enduring love for his alma mater, Jerry Rutledge was also a huge supporter and fan of CU Buffs football and basketball, spending his free time watching games with his family. His enthusiastic allegiance allowed him to forge lifelong friendships with CU Buffs legends including former football coach Bill McCartney, who died just one day after Jerry Rutledge on Jan. 10.

Though he was a pillar in his community, Jerry Rutledge never sought recognition or thanks, his family recalled.

“He made such a difference in people’s lives. I mean, it was huge — and quietly. He was humble,” Jan Rutledge said. She and Jerry Rutledge married in 1970 and welcomed their only son in 1974.

“He didn’t have a desire to be front and center,” John Rutledge said.

“He just became front and center,” Jan Rutledge finished.

The family is accepting donations in memory of Jerry Rutledge to the Jerry Rutledge University of Colorado Football Scholarship.

Checks can be mailed to:

CU Buff Club

2150 Stadium Drive

Boulder, CO 80309

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