By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Ned Sutherland's retiring again.
Maybe it will stick this time.
He's serious about vacationing in Europe during President Jimmy Carter's Benton Harbor Blitz Build.
Habitat for Humanity of Cass County's founder guided the Christian housing ministry for 15 years, for which nine of the people it will take to replace him paid tribute Wednesday noon at Zeke's with a "Head Hammer" plaque, a shirt and a cake.
Sandra Judd echoed a comment made several years ago by Randy Murphy, then pastor of Federated Church, who worked with Sutherland for eight years on the Habitat board: It wouldn't exist without his dedicated guidance.
Sutherland attended his first meeting in 1989 at what is now Fifth Third Bank.
Sutherland was the first president. His successor, David Springsteen of Springsteen Realty, was vice president. Dr. Jean O. Smith, former school board president, was secretary. Mary Jane Visingardi, former city housing director, was treasurer.
Habitat initially rehabbed homes rather than building from scratch.
Those homes are located in Dowagiac at 318 Oak St. near Justus Gage Elementary School and at 414 Maple St.
The Carter Blitz Build will start in mid-May for June 24 completion.
Sutherland, a retired vocational education director for Lewis Cass Intermediate School District, was honored in 2002 by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Capt. Samuel Felt Chapter with one of 14 community service awards given in Michigan. He was further among four the DAR selected to advance to division competition.
The DAR also cited Sutherland's contributions to six city parks during an eight-year grantwriting campaign for land acquisition.
The longtime vice chairman of the Dowagiac Downtown Development Authority (DDA) was a Daily News Hometown Hero, received the Dowagiac Ministerial Association's second Barnabas Award in 1999, won Elks 1996 Dowagiac Citizen of the Year as selected by a committee of James McWilliams, Tom Dalton and the late John Nate Sr., was the first Lion of the Year in 1971-72 and has been bestowed professional awards that include Indiana's best teacher and Michigan's top administrator.
Sutherland came to Cass County in 1967 from Kokomo, Ind., to teach drafting at Southwestern Michigan College. He and his wife, Lou, co-chaired United Way campaigns. He also chaired The Family Center board of directors.
An only child from Rensselaer, Ind., Sutherland played some basketball in college. He attended Indiana University in 1952-53, then completed his bachelor's degree in 1956 in industrial education and physical education from Ball State University. He earned a master's degree from Western Michigan University in 1964.
In 1995, the three-sport athlete was inducted into Rensselaer's Hall of Fame.
He taught middle school and high school mathematics, industrial arts and physical education. His career began in Otsego, where he met his future wife.
He served in the military as academic director of Army vocational programs in Germany.
After two years, Sutherland returned to Otsego and married Lou in 1959. Sutherland began plugging away at community service, involving himself in at least a project a year, even when he and Lou were raising their four children - Les, Lisa, Julie and Jan - on Main Street.
The Sutherlands moved from Otsego to Kokomo, where, while teaching high school drafting, he was named Indiana's Teacher of the Year.
He remained at SMC as chairman of the drafting department until 1972, when Sutherland joined LCISD as director of vocational educaiton.
Sutherland provded a gifted grant writer who annually secured $1 million to $2 million in funding. He grew his programs from 375 students to enrollments of more than 1,400 by the time he retired in 1996 after 40 years in education.
Sutherland took a measured, methodical tortoise approach to the rat race of community service.
In 1992, when Sutherland was selected a Hometown Hero by this newspaper, he said every year he tried to find something around town that needed his help.
After more than 35 years of sticking his neck out, slowly but surely passing many a hare-ied volunteer, Sutherland amassed an enviable body of civic good deeds.
Ned joined the LCISD on Jan. 22, 1973, and had a hand in designing the student-built administration building on Dailey Road which contained his office.
Other hats he's worn included vice chairman of the Private Industry Council (PIC) for Cass, Berrien and Van Buren counties, chairman of First United Methodist Church's administrative board, chairman of Dowagiac's parks and recreation committee, chairman of Dowagiac's Junior Achievement committee and vice president of Southwestern Michigan Council of Boy Scouts of America. He earned Scouting's highest award for adult leaders, the Silver Beaver.
Sutherland, who collects Hummel figurines, chaired the committee which studied Dowagiac athletic facility needs, which made him particulary gratified in the mid-1980s to see APEX, the Athletic and Physical Education CompleX, take shape behind Union High School with an all-weather track, softball fields and tennis courts.
Sutherland has ventured far afield from his boyhood, when he rode his bike to the Chicago Bears' practice field.
He met his favorite players whenever they lost teeth to jarring tackles because his dad was a dentist - a career he considered. He also might have become an engineer since he did industrial design work for Pittsburgh Plate and Glass, Consolidated Steel and Sundstrand.
The pillared Clary home on Main Street overlooked another of Ned's pet projects, Farr Park. He sold the house to Superintendent of Schools Ronald Jones, who lived there his first few years in town. Sutherland also lived briefly on Orchard Street while building a home on Sunset Drive, off Marcellus Highway on scenic Henderson Hill.
While he left his old neighborhood, it didn't leave him. Bontragers and Jirgls, who inhabited Frantz's house across the alley, became country neighbors in Wayne Township.
As an educator, Sutherland's goal was to have a career path for every student - fast and slow achievers alike - starting at eighth grade through the Career/Tech Prep 4 plus 4 program he pioneered with SMC. He received a legislative tribute for that program in 1988.
That program tapping Carl Perkins Act funding enabled every student in Dowagiac, Cassopolis, Edwardsburg and Marcellus to start in eighth grade developing a plan for an eventual career as a graduating senior.
Sutherland's office typically wrote more than $1 million in grants each year to benefit Berrien and St. Joseph counties, as well as Cass.
His office helped sponsor the countywide Community Awareness Day for juniors at SMC and a vocational recognition breakfast with the state legislators.
Sutherland has credited his second teaching job, going from Otsego to Kokomo in 1964, for awakening his inclination to community service.
Habitat was Sutherland's "inside hobby," in tandem with his outside hobby, golf. A hole in one remains an elusive goal.