Bob Rutherford Sworn in as Coronado Rotary Club President
Coronado Rotary’s new president, Bob Rutherford, broke the mold in his family, joining the Navy after four generations of career Army officers. That choice was driven by his aspiration to fly jets. The Navy offered just that opportunity to Bob, with his freshly minted degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona.
As a Navy test pilot, Bob tested the suitability of jets for use on carriers and did weapons systems integration verification. This involved pushing the limits of the aircraft to determine safe parameters using real-time telemetry. Bob’s job was to minimize surprises for the pilots who followed him.
One test stands out in his memory where he was instructed to test how slow one can take off from an aircraft carrier without losing significant altitude after leaving the carrier deck. On one flight, he dropped a bit more than was expected and made a note of that speed as below the minimum to protect the next pilot from a similar experience.

Bob was chosen as an exchange student test pilot for one year with the UK’s Royal Air Force Empire Test Pilot school, where the curriculum was similar to a master’s degree in engineering.
Like his forebears, Bob retired as a military officer, completing 30 years of service. The Navy took him to Coronado twice: in 1993 and finally in 2005, when he followed fellow Rotarians Tom Mitchell and Dave Landon as Commanding Officer, Fleet Area Surveillance and Control Facility. Like many military retirees, Bob and his family made the decision to remain in Coronado.
 
After his retirement as a Captain, Bob embarked on a 10-year career with Northrup Grumman, starting in business development and continuing as a program manager where he focused on military unmanned aerial systems (UAS) including Fire Scout, Triton and X-47B UAS programs. Although he was “flying a desk” with Northrup Grumman, he enjoyed managing the test of these aircraft remotely and applying his considerable knowledge from his Navy career.
When Bob and his family retired to Coronado, he was seeking involvement and ways to give back in his community. His grandfather had been a Rotarian in Minnesota, providing Bob with a role model for supporting charitable activities in Rotary. One of his staff members, Heidi Nevitt sponsored him to join Coronado Rotary in 2007 and Bob soon became involved in Rotary’s good works.
Bob has been impressed with the projects by Rotary that have an immediate and profound effect on those who benefit. When asked for examples, Bob quickly enumerates several: building houses for the needy in Mexico, building changing booths at Camp Surf, raising money to end polio worldwide and supporting Limbs of Freedom, a program that provides prosthetic limbs free of charge to those in need in northern Baja California. He repeats a story told to him of a man who received two prosthetic legs who had never been able to walk previously. When fitted with his legs, the man was overcome with emotion, saying, “I’ve never been able to look a man in the face before.”
As Coronado Rotary President 2023-24, Bob aspires to manage the energetic and altruistic club using the late Bob Watson and Ron Beaubien as role models. He wants to inspire and channel the energy of Coronado Rotary’s 250 members so that all are fully engaged in “Service Above Self.”