Former Starkville Mayor Mack Rutledge’s struggle with cancer did not slow him down, his vice mayor, former Ward 2 Alderman Frank Davis, said. “Actually, he’s an unbelievable person, extremely strong.”
Rutledge, who served as mayor of Starkville for eight years, died Sunday of cancer. He was 73.
“He was always very supportive of the Student Association and was just a genuinely concerned and fatherly figure to many students in Starkville,” SA President Jon David Cole said.
“Any time that we invited him to dinner or had a roundtable discussion, he would always be there and he would always listen. He didn’t necessarily agree, but he would always listen,” former SA president Adam Telle said.
“Mayor Rutledge didn’t play politics. He stood for what he believed in,” Telle said.
Even as the end of his life approached, Rutledge did not stop caring about the his city.
“Mrs. Rutledge told me that in those last two or three weeks of his illness, he was failing, but he wanted her to take him downtown,” Davis said. The former mayor wanted to see the progress that had been made on the sidewalks and railings on Main Street.
The revitalization of downtown was very important to Rutledge, Davis said. “This was a very good thing that he knew that we had brought life back to the downtown.”
“The mark he left on students is those last four years were the most progressive and effective years of Mississippi State students in Starkville,” Telle said. “It laid the groundwork for all the wonderful things that are coming.”