Lutton will be missed

It’s a chair he fit in so well, Jay School Corporation gave it to him twice.
This week will be Bob Lutton’s last behind the desk in the Jay County High School athletics director’s office. He announced his resignation in October and will finish his duties this week before turning over the Patriot reins to Steve Boozier.
The last three years have been a second go-round for Bob as the AD at Jay County following a stint in the mid-1990s. He had spent more than a decade in Wes-Del schools after serving in several roles in Jay Schools from 1989-1996.
JCHS was able to bring him back as AD in 2010 after he “retired,” and he has been a great asset for the Patriots.
When I wrote about Bob’s looming departure for our Thanksgiving issue, I did so after talking with two of his closest friends — JCHS principal Phil Ford and IHSAA assistant commissioner Phil Gardner. The three worked together as an administrative team at Wes-Del, and Ford and Gardner shared remarkably similar favorite stories about Bob.
In each case, the administrators were preparing for a meeting with a parent who was upset about one thing or another. Bob had the same advice for both of his colleagues, on separate occasions: “You just keep your mouth shut because you’ll just make (the parent) mad. Let me run this thing and we’ll get through it.”
Bob is the kind of guy who can strike up a conversation with anyone. It’s easy to envision him defusing a potentially difficult situation with his affable personality.
And has kept that upbeat tone even when it’s been difficult to do so.
Bob was on the way to a game earlier this year when he received word that his father-in-law had died. He turned around and headed home to be with his wife.
In the last week, his grandmother’s health has been in decline.
Bob spent all night with her the evening of May 30, but was back in the office first thing the next day. With another long night looming Saturday, he was still at Timber Ridge Golf Course for the boys golf sectional tournament.
He didn’t have to be there. No one would have blamed him if he hadn’t been. But he wanted to support the Patriots.
That’s who Bob is.
He’s also the kind of guy who would do anything for a friend. And that brings me to my favorite Bob story, what I’m going to call “The Chronicle of the Keys”.
It was the day of a girls sectional soccer game last fall. I had arrived early and was sitting in my car at Yorktown Sports Complex, waiting for the first game to end. Rather than putting my keys in my pocket, I left them in the ignition. That was a recipe for disaster.
By the time I crossed the field to the Jay County bench, I realized what I had done. My doors were locked, windows up, keys securely inside.
I found Bob and told him about my predicament, hoping he might have a coat hanger with which we could break into my car. He looked at me in disbelief.
He was in the midst of his own adventure with keys, having been unable to find his when it was time to leave school for the game. So he had gotten a ride from Phil, stopping at home along the way to pick up a spare set. Phil was going to drive Bob back to JCHS after the game to retrieve his car. His problem was solved.
Unfortunately I, in my infinite wisdom, had no spare, and it seemed no one had a coat hanger. I had asked everyone I could think of. Bob and Phil had helped.
Finally, the decision was made. I would ride back with the two of them, we would find a hanger at the high school and Bob would drive me back to Yorktown to retrieve my car. I assured him that I had done this before and that the process was easy.
(When Bob relayed this ingenious plan to his wife, she laughed at us.)
Finally arriving back in Yorktown, I pried open the top of the window and snaked the hanger in. Apparently my memory of previous such adventures was a bit faulty.
Bob and I learned one thing for sure that night — neither of us would make a very good car thief.
I didn’t time the process, but it wasn’t fast. I’m guessing it took about a half-hour, in the dark and well past Bob’s preferred bed time.
And yet, he never complained. He never even seemed to get frustrated. (I can’t say the same for myself.)
We took turns, one of us prying the window open while the other tried to hook the lock release with the hanger. Finally, Bob got the job done.
I thanked him and we headed home, both eager to put an end to an unnecessarily and aggravatingly long day.
Bob found his keys the next morning — in his desk drawer in the JCHS athletics office.
It has been great for Jay Schools and the community to have him back behind that desk for the last three years. I’ve enjoyed working with him and getting to know him. We are lucky to have attracted someone of his level of skill and professionalism, even if only for a relatively short time.
Bob, you will be missed.[[In-content Ad]]