Ronald Ludwig Gutmann, 73, a resident of the Chenoweth Creek Road community, Elkins, departed this life Monday morning, July 22, 2002, at the Ruby Memorial Hospital at Morgantown. He had been in his usual health and death was unexpected.
He was born March 17, 1929, at Elizabeth, N.J., a son of the late Richard T. Gutmann and Ethel Mary Lesin Gutmann.
On May 30, 1958, at Parsons, he was married to the former Dixie Lee Goff, who survives.
Also surviving are one son, Ronald Ludwig “Chip” Gutmann II, Raleigh, N.C.; one daughter, Erica Lee “Rikki” Mowen and husband, David, Grasonville, Md.; one sister-in-law, Helen Gutmann, Falls Church, Va.; his mother-in-law, Vallie Cosner Goff, Elkins; and several nieces and nephews.
He was the last surviving member of his immediate family, having been preceded in death by one brother, Richard W. Gutmann; and one sister, Alice Vanderstreet.
Mr. Gutmann was a graduate of Kennelworth High School at New Jersey. He was a veteran of the U.S. Navy. He was a 1956 graduate of Rutgers University with a bachelor’s of science degree in business administration. He had worked as assistant director of the Social Security and Insurance Department for the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce at Newark, N.J., as the secretary and treasurer of the former Dorman Mills at Parsons, as commercial superintendent for Sherbo Minerals Limited at Sierra Leone, West Africa, as shopping center manager at Baltimore, Md., and had worked as controller and acting manager of the Laboratory Furniture, Labcraft Division at Beverly, until his retirement in 1976, due to a disability. He was instrumental in the organization and development of the Holly Meadows Country Club and the development of the Kingsford Charcoal Plant. He had served two terms on the Parsons City Council. He was a member of the Elkins Lodge No. 1135, BPOE and the American Red Cross, where he had served as county chairman for two years. He was an avid golfer and salt water fisherman.
Friends will be received at Lohr & Barb Funeral Home from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday. On Friday morning, Mr. Gutmann will be moved to the First United Methodist Church, where final rites will be conducted at 11 a.m. The Rev. Dr. Basil A. Hensley and the Rev. Jonas Johnson Jr. will officiate and cremation will follow. The family suggests that expressions of sympathy be in the form of contributions to the First United Methodist Church, 315 Kerens Ave., Elkins, W.Va. 26241.
