Mar. 5, 2014:  With sadness, yet peace, we announce the passing of our mother, Helen Hurlbut Rutherford, on February 26, 2014, at the age of 97. She died quietly in the early morning hours, close to her family.

Helen was born on October 14, 1916, in Oakland, California. She attended Stanford University, lived a year in China as an exchange student, and graduated in 1939.

In 1940, she married Wilbur Bingham Hurlbut, MD, Stanford Medical School class of 1938, whom she described as the most handsome man she had ever known. Together they moved to New York, where our father established his medical practice and raised three children.

She taught the girls' confirmation class at The Reformed Church of Bronxville for nearly twenty years, led a Brownie troop, took art classes, and loved working in the garden.

A few years after our father's death, she married, at the age of 84, her grade school classmate Albert Rutherford, and together they lived for six good years in St. Helena, California. Ultimately, after Albert’s death, she finished out her days living with family in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

Her most treasured times were the summers in the forest of Northern California. It was there she taught her family to love the simple joys of life and the beauty of the natural world. Whether it be the radiance of a star-filled night or the splendor of sunlight streaming through to the forest floor, her heart captured the beauty of it all. Her genuine appreciation for the blessings of her life was borne out in the way she valued the world and the people around her.

She has left in the lives of her offspring, from the oldest to the youngest, a legacy of abiding faith in Jesus Christ and has shown us, by example, what it means to love and be loved unconditionally. She invested the fullness of her heart into us, sometimes at a personal cost to her, yet she bore that cost quietly so as to assure our well-being.

Helen is survived by two sons, Stephen Bingham Hurlbut and William Barton Hurlbut, a daughter, Nancy Hurlbut Marcacci, ten grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

We continue in this present life, but she has gone on into the inexpressible joy of her savior for whom she longed.

A private family memorial will be held in her honor. The family suggests that memorial contributions be directed to the Hurlbut Scholarship Fund and made payable to: Hayfork Scholarship Foundation, P.O. Box 1341, Hayfork, CA 96041, Attn: Dick Murray--in memory of Helen Hurlbut Rutherford.