A lay president has been appointed at Fenwick High School for the first time in the Dominican Catholic institution’s 95-year history.
Retired Marine Corps Col. Otto J. Rutt, a Harvard University graduate and Fenwick alumnus, will assume his new role Nov. 4.
A nation-wide search for the school’s next president began in June, according to a letter addressing the Fenwick Community from Matt McNicholas, chairman of the high school’s board of directors.
During the first week of October, it was announced that Rutt had been selected.
In his letter, McNicholas said “having a lay president opens new opportunities for growth and collaboration, enabling us to blend the best of our traditions with contemporary insights and approaches while strengthening our commitment to academic excellence, spiritual growth, and the holistic development of every student.”
Rutt will lead the college preparatory school in Oak Park alongside Principal Dr. John Finan and Director of Catholic and Dominican Mission Fr. Richard Peddicord.
“I am humbled and so excited,” Rutt said. “Fenwick is just so dear to me.”
Rutt described his time at Fenwick, from which he graduated in 1979, as dynamic, busy and fun. He played on the football team and was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2008.
“I made lifelong friends at Fenwick that I talk to almost on a daily basis, all these decades later,” he said. “Our shared experiences were so rewarding in that school, whether it was in class, at practice or having lunch together.”
After high school, Rutt attended Harvard and graduated in three years with an economics degree. He then joined the Marine Corps in 1982, at the age of 21, and became an F/A-18 pilot.
“It was something I really wanted to do ever since I was a child,” he said. “My father and my stepfather were both World War II veterans.” During his time in the Marine Corps, Rutt served tours in both the Persian Gulf and Western Iraq. In between those tours, he attended the University of Chicago, earning an MBA with dual concentrations in finance and business policy in 1993. After four decades of service as a fighter pilot, combat veteran and senior leader, Rutt retired from the Marine Corps in 2012. He is the recipient of several service awards, including the Meritorious Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Selected Marine Corps Reserve Medal.
In the years immediately following his retirement, Rutt returned to Chicago and served as a Commandant in the Marine Corps Junior ROTC program at Marine Leadership Academy in the Logan Square neighborhood. He then pursued a lifelong passion, art, and got a master’s of fine art in 2020 from Florida Atlantic University. Since earning his MFA, Rutt has worked as a printmaking instructor at Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach, Fla. As his first day at Fenwick approaches, Rutt said he is looking forward to moving back to the Chicagoland area and immersing himself in the Fenwick community.
“After decades of building on the top-notch Catholic education I gained at Fenwick, through career stops in the military, the private sector and in public education, I am coming home,” he said.
Matt McNicholas, chairman of Fenwick’s board of directors, said. Rutt’s diverse academic and professional background equips him to attend well to both the analytical and creative aspects of leadership of a modern college preparatory school.
“From the board’s perspective, we were blessed to have him throw his hat in the ring,” McNicholas said. “We didn’t necessarily know what we would be getting into with regard to choosing our first lay president, but Otto is such a fantastic human being and leader for the school. We just feel incredibly grateful.”