Betty Rugen Schutter
SCHUTTER, RUGEN, HAUPT, KIEKHAEFER, STROHMER, SCHUTTER, SANGER, PORTER
Posted By: Sarah Fletcher (email)
Date: 12/16/2019 at 15:49:04
Betty Rugen Schutter, 100, former resident of Coralville, died Wednesday, December 11, 2019 in North Liberty, IA.
Following her wishes, her body has been deeded to the University of Iowa Deeded Body Program. Burial will be at West Bend Cemetery in West Bend, IA at a later date. Memorial donations may be made in her name to the CommUnity Crisis Services and Food Bank in Iowa City or to your chosen non-profit.
Betty was born in Evanston, Illinois on April 10, 1919, the daughter of Fredrick and Kathryn Haupt Rugen. Her mother died in 1920, and Betty was sent to live on her aunt's farm until her father's remarriage reunited the family. Betty and her father, stepmother, and older sister lived in Glenview, Illinois, where her father was a partner in the family's general store. She attended Glenview District 34 School and New Trier High School.
Inspired by speech teacher Maybelle Payton, she decided to pursue a career in speech pathology. In Miss Payton's class, she was a classmate with Charles Percy, who was later the Illinois senator and ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. In 1937, Betty moved to Iowa to attend the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa), where she lived in Currier Hall studying speech pathology. In 1939, she transferred to Washington University for one semester, but returned to Iowa to complete her bachelor's degree in 1941 under the speech pathologist Wendell Johnson. During her collegiate career, she wrote many letters to her parents detailing her experiences at the State University of Iowa. Much of her life is archived at the State Historical Society.
Following college, Betty was hired to teach fifth grade and speech at the South Dakota School for the Deaf, where she remained for one year. In 1942, she married John Maurice Schutter, M.D. She was a military wife during WWII, then moved to Algona, Iowa, where in addition to rearing five children, she maintained a private speech therapy practice in her home.
Betty was also a skilled seamstress and baker. Her children fondly remember her sewing their childhood outfits rather than buying them in a store. Throughout her life she enjoyed baking to share with family, friends, and neighbors.
She participated in many organizations including the Methodist church and American Association of University Women. She was politically active during the 60's and 70's leading statewide political campaigning and working with the League of Women Voters. She was state president of the Iowa Federation of Republican Women from 1971-72 and was delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1972. She was Iowa Mother of the Year in 1972. She also served on Governor Bob Ray's Iowa 2000 committee. She worked hard for the failed 1980 campaign to pass a state Equal Rights Amendment in Iowa, which was a very important issue to the GOP and AAUW at that time. She was also involved with and very concerned about international peace issues.
After her husband's death in 1984, she traveled widely throughout Europe, Asia and Australia. She directed the Free Lunch Program for a short while then found her niche volunteering for many years with the Crisis Center Food Bank. She loved to go on the work trips with Coralville United Methodist Church to Appalachia and other sites, spent a year volunteering at Warren Wilson College and a stint at Heifer International. She continued lap swimming and hiking until age 96. In 2016 she moved to her residence at Keystone Forevergreen in North Liberty.
Betty was dearly loved and revered by her family and community, always willing to share her joys and experiences of life while keeping her burdens to herself. She did very well with raising and supporting her children, in-laws, and grandchildren as she loved and was proud of everyone. Her life embodied the verse of one of her favorite hymns, “the Corn Song”: “We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land, but it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand; He sends the snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain, the breezes, and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain; All good gifts around us are sent from Heaven above; Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all His love.”
Survivors include three sons: John (Liz) of Aurora, OH; James (Joyce) of Sandwich, MA and Stephen (Vicki) of Houston, TX; two daughters Margaret “Meg” (Gerhard Strohmer) Kiekhaefer of Coralville, IA and Anne Schutter of Northville, MI; eight grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, her sister Jeanette Childs Sanger and her sons-in-law John Roger Porter Jr. and Gene Kiekhaefer.
Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service
Johnson Obituaries maintained by Cindy Booth Maher.
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