Mary Rutz

Former Grand Junction resident Mary L. Rutz passed away in Arvada, Colorado on May 11, 2018. Born in Rutland, Vermont to Avery E. and Irene A. Lambert and raised in Iowa, she graduated from Iowa City High School and Grinnell College in 1941, where she earned a degree in Sociology and belonged to Phi Beta Kappa. She married Richard Rutz in Iowa City, Iowa June 10, 1945. She is survived by her three sons, eight grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Mary and Richard lived in New Mexico, New York State, and Grand Junction, Colorado until Richard's death in 2010. She relocated to Arvada, Colorado where she spent the remainder of her life.

She worked as a newspaper reporter, a social worker at a Chicago settlement home, and a swimming teacher for the YWCA and Girl Scouts. A believer in social justice, she participated in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, notably as a fund raiser for the Black College Fund of the Methodist Church.

A funeral will be held at the First Congregational Church, 1425 N 5th St, Grand Junction, Colorado, on Friday May 18, 11:30 AM, with a reception to follow, and a memorial service at Brookdale Arvada, 7720 Allison St., Arvada, Colorado, 2:00 PM Sunday May 20, with a reception to follow. Her ashes will be interred with those of her husband of 65 years at the Veteran's Memorial Cemetery, Grand Junction, Colorado.