Rutschman's accomplishments extend
beyond his restaurants
Bill Wilson bwilson@thekansan.com
Newton Kansan
There were a lot of trademarks to Jim
Rutschman, the man who brought the combination of quality food and
human rights to Newton -- the Colonel Harland Sanders tie, the steady
clacking of his shoes, the almost paternal concern for his customers.
But none of those trademarks was more
visible than the wry smile a satisfied visitor to his Kentucky Fried
Chicken restaurant could produce.
Rutschman, 80, the patriarch of
Newton's first family of restauranting, died Friday at his home in
North Newton after a 13-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He has a
long list of credits in the restaurant business, culminating with his
1995 election to the Kansas Restaurant Association Hall of Fame.
To dismiss Rutschman as merely a
customer-friendly restaurateur is to sell him short. He is credited
by many longtime Newtonians with integrating the community in the
early 1950s. By hiring African-Americans and welcoming them to eat in
his restaurant, he put a large, and well-received crack in the city's
longstanding segregationist reputation.
"Jim was the first person in
Newton to hire a black cook," said June Thaw of Newton. "He
was the first to hire black girls to wait on tables and the first
person to allow black seating in his restaurant."
The reason why was a simple one, his
son Roger said Friday.
"I can remember as a kid seeing
water fountains for whites in this town and water fountains labeled
'colored,' " Roger Rutschman said. "I asked Dad about that
and he said, 'Son, there are some people around who are prejudiced
and feel that other people are less. That's not right. In God's eyes,
everyone is the same.' "
With his partner, longtime Bethel
College official J. Winfield Fretz, Rutschman's restaurant put a
"service to all" policy into play at a time when such
policies were rare.
"Dr. Fretz was 100 percent for
that," Roger Rutschman said. "And there were very little
repercussions for that. It was a boon to business, actually.
"Dad said in those early years, he
only had one customer refuse to eat with us because we were
integrated," he said. "I think most people respected Dad
and his position, and I think we got business out of it."
That's one aspect of Rutschman's
legacy.
"We thought he was just wonderful
back then," Thaw said. "I still think Jim's a wonderful man
and I think we always will. ... He contributed a lot more to this
community than food. He was an upstanding citizen in a lot of ways in
this community."
Another aspect of Rutschman's legacy is
his genuine affection for people, an affection that never really
allowed him to retire from the restaurant business.
Long after he turned over the local KFC
to his son, Rutschman and his wife, Charlotte, were fixtures in the
dining room. Rutschman could be found circling around the tables and
booths, coffee pot in hand and shoes clacking steadily on the tile
floor, fussing over "his people."
"Dad always said he wanted
operations so good that it would drive sales," Roger Rutschman
said. "The way to do that was to take care of our customers and
provide for their every need. He always tried to focus himself, even
when he wasn't retired, on the dining room and taking care of
customers. You don't see that as much today, and I think it's because
we came from a full-service background."
As a result, Rutschman became friends
with a long list of his repeat customers.
"It was the friendships he
developed over the years that was the most rewarding thing for Dad in
the business," Roger Rutschman said. "It was always that
way. As a kid, I'd walk up and down Main Street with Dad and everyone
knew him."
Rutschman and his family expanded the
KFC business over the years into several Kansas cities. In August
1999, the family opened a huge KFC restaurant on I-135 in Park City,
reportedly the largest KFC store in the country.
"I think Dad was pretty proud of
what we've accomplished," Roger Rutschman said.
But Jim Rutschman wasn't a person to
rest on his laurels.
"Both Mom and Dad would travel
around the state and visit our restaurants to make sure things were
in good shape," Roger Rutschman said. "When they'd get
back, he and I would sit down and I'd sort of debrief him, have him
let me know what was right and what was wrong with every store so we
could continue to make improvements."
That tenacity carried through to the
end of Rutschman's life.
"When we opened up Park City, and
that was over six months after we'd found out Dad had cancer, he was
right there," Roger Rutschman said. "He enjoyed being with
people and customers."
It was a variation of the "do
right" rule.
"Dad was a man of integrity and
when my Dad said something, he did it," his son said. "Before
he made decisions, he would decide whether it was the morally correct
thing to do. If he didn't think it was morally right, even if it was
a benefit to him, he wouldn't do it."
