Tom Rutherford, co-founder of Balloon Fiesta, dies at 77

Nov. 14—Balloon Fiesta co-founder, former New Mexican senator and KKOB radio personality Tom Rutherford died early this week due to natural causes. He was 77.

Rutherford's ballooning career began in 1972. During his time as a manager for KKOB, Rutherford decided to help Sid Cutter put on Albuquerque's first balloon race. Thirteen hot air balloons gathered in the city to test their ballooning skills, launching from the parking lot of the Coronado Shopping Center. Since then, The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has become the world's largest hot air balloon celebration, flying over 500 balloons every year.

Rutherford would become an established member of the ballooning community after falling in love with the sport, first as vice president of the World Balloon Corporation before taking his talents to the skies as he piloted balloons for Budweiser during national and international ballooning events. Rutherford served as field announcer for the Balloon Fiesta for 25 years.

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Outside of ballooning, Rutherford also took a liking to politics and served as a state senator in the New Mexico Legislature from 1972-1996. Rutherford was the youngest elected at the time, at age 25.

As senator, Rutherford pushed legislation that allowed the city of Albuquerque to purchase permanent space for ballooning — which became Balloon Fiesta Park. The park is 360 acres and the launch field is is 80 acres, allowing space for hundreds of balloons to launch into the Albuquerque sky.

"He was one of the few legislators who passed the 1% for the arts and arts in public places act that is all over the state now," said son Jeremy Rutherford. "He introduced the first human rights legislation that included gay, lesbian and bisexual people. I very fondly remember him as the voice of (the) Fiesta for many years, championing good causes, just generally being as helpful as he can to the underrepresented."

In 1996, Tom Rutherford retired as majority floor leader. He later was elected to the Bernalillo County Commission.

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"He was just a kind, generous, gentle man and an amazing public servant," said former Bernalillo County Commissioner Tim Cummins. "He was probably the only politician I knew that after every election wrote a personal note to everyone who ran for office and thanked them for running for office."

Cummins said Rutherford played a significant role in "making sure the programs were there" when the Metropolitan Detention Center first opened and credited him for the handling of the Bernalillo County Department of Behavioral Health Services, also known as the Care Campus.

"Tom was the commissioner at the time and was instrumental in the diversion for people that had problems, that didn't need to be in jail, and started with a limited number of beds, which is a huge success today," Cummins said.

Rutherford's celebration of life services are scheduled sometime in next spring. He is survived by his sister Anne Arrasmith, brother James Rutherford and son Jeremy Rutherford.

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