J. T. Rutherford (May 30, 1921 – November 6, 2006) was a United States Representative from the state of Texas. He was a Democrat.
He was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, but moved to Odessa, Texas, in 1934, where he attended public schools. He served as an enlisted man in the United States Marine Corps from 1942 to 1946, of which twenty-eight months were spent overseas. He was awarded the Purple Heart. As an assault amphibian vehicle crewman, he landed in the first waves on D-Day at Tarawa, Saipan, where he was wounded, and Tinian. He retired as a major in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.
He studied at San Angelo College in San Angelo from 1946–1947 and at Sul Ross State College in Alpine, from 1947 to 1948. He attended Baylor University Law School in Waco from 1948 to 1950.
He was a businessman and a partner in an industrial electrical construction firm as well as the owner of an advertising company prior to serving elected office.
He served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1948 to 1952 and was a member of the Texas State Senate from 1953 to 1954. He was elected to the 84th to 87th United States Congresses from January 3, 1955 to January 3, 1963. He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1962 to the 88th United States Congress; he was unseated by Republican Ed Foreman, later of Dallas. His loss to Foreman was attributed to the Billy Sol Estes scandal. He missed only one floor vote of the several thousand cast while he was a congressman.
He was the first chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Parks. He was awarded the U. S. Department of Interior's Conservation Service Award in 1962 for his efforts to spearhead conservation legislation including laws that created a new national seashore on Padre Island, Cape Cod National Seashore, and Point Reyes in California.
Rutherford's district was the old jumbo 16th district, Midland being its eastmost point and El Paso at its westmost. It also stretched hundreds of miles along the border with Mexico. The 19 counties it embraced covered 42,067 square miles—making it geographically larger than the states of Ohio or Tennessee, among others.
After leaving Congress, he formed J. T. Rutherford & Associates, a government relations consulting firm to work on issue before Congress.
He died in Arlington, Virginia.
| Texas House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by George W. Elliott |
Member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 88 (Odessa) 1949–1953 |
Succeeded by Elbert Reeves |
| Texas Senate | ||
| Preceded by Hill D. Hudson |
Texas State Senator from District 29 (Odessa) 1953–1954 |
Succeeded by Frank Owen, III |
| United States House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by Kenneth M. Regan |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 16th congressional district 1955–1963 |
Succeeded by Ed Foreman |