Died March 1, 1990
College: Pierson
Widow: Mrs. Penelope Hutcherson
741 Arlington Street
Jackson, MS 39202
John grew up on campus at Ole Miss, the son of Graduate School Dean Dudley Hutcherson and Scholars Program Director Anita Cometti Hutcherson. During John’s senior year at University High School, Jordan Oliver, head coach of the Yale varsity football squad, visited Oxford and encouraged him to enroll at Yale. He agreed and while at first he felt a bit out of place in New Haven, he soon found his friends and teammates living in Pierson College, as a member of Elihu, and as tight end of the legendary 1960 Ivy League championship, Lambert trophy winning football team.
After graduation he enlisted in the Navy and finished OCS as a Lieutenant J.G. He was deployed to the Mediterranean and then the Cuban blockade. Upon his discharge, he attended the University of Virginia Law School and moved to Jackson, Mississippi to practice as a litigator at the firm Brunini, Grantham, Grower and Hewes. Hutch was a road warrior spending much of his time in Washington, DC and Houston , TX .
As a bachelor, he enjoyed golf but then moved on to tennis and running as time became condensed with marriage and fatherhood. He coached his stepson’s little league baseball team while powering through a busy schedule and instilled sportsmanship and work ethic for the whole team and league. His passion for opera made him a natural as President of the Mississippi Opera Association; every Saturday he listened to the Metropolitan broadcast and hand conducted. He was also Chairman of the Mississippi Authority for Public Television and board member for Mississippi Legal Services.
His widow Penelope, sister Nancy, and stepson Warren live in Jackson , Mississippi, Loudon, Tennessee, and Houston, Texas respectively. A loving, generous, dedicated and disciplined family man, he was a friend and benefactor to innumerable people.
—by Warren Jones