Obituary for Henry Anthony Sutter Jr.

Henry Anthony Sutter, Jr., age 88 of Murphy, NC passed away Sunday, May 23, 2021.

He was born in Chicago, Illinois to the late Henry Anthony Sutter and Mary Louise Trbovich Sutter.

Henry "Bud" retired from the US Air Force as a Radar Technician with 22 years of service. He also was an Associate Professor teaching electronics and later on became a bus driver for Hillsborough County Schools in Florida. Henry was an amateur gold miner, enjoyed gambling at the casinos, traveling the world and woodworking. Henry loved his country, his family and dogs, but most of all he loved his wife, Nita.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by one brother, Bradley Paul Sutter and one sister, Glorianna Gregory.

He is survived by his wife, Lillian Westmoreland Sutter, "Nita", two sons, Henry Anthony Sutter, III and wife Patti of Tampa, FL and Alvin Russell Sutter and wife Becky Sue of Welcome, NC; one brother, Gerald Sutter and wife Marilyn of Sebastian, FL; four grandchildren Taylor, Matthew, Carly, Carolina and nine great grandchildren.

An inurnment will be held at 1:30 pm, Friday, June 4, 2021 at the Chattanooga National Cemetery in Chattanooga, TN with military honors.

Townson-Rose Funeral Home is in charge of all arrangements.

"My Pepaw, Henry’s “Mountain Pepaw”, passed away after enjoying one last trip to the casino. I feel so lucky to have had so many years with him.

I’m so very thankful for all the summers at his house, trips in the camper, life lessons, intricately woven sentences of cuss words, car rides where I thought he was going to end it all, helping him cut 30 pounds of potatoes to make potato salad for only ten people, having the same conversation three times and somehow always reaching a different conclusion, and the seemingly endless John Wayne movie marathons.

He was born to a Catholic family in Chicago in the early 30s, joined the Air Force at 17, and met a beautiful southern woman who loved him fiercely. Together they created a beautiful life. They lived all over the world with their sons and have all the knickknacks to prove it.

He was smuggled out of Iran in the bed of a pickup truck during the revolution in 1979, lived underground in a radar station on a frozen Alaskan mountain, retired from the Air Force and decided he (of all people) would be a good fit as a school bus driver, and then used his great driving skills to drive our grandma across the country in pursuit of digging gold and diamonds out of the ground into his 80s.

He never met a rule he couldn’t break, a boundary he couldn’t push, a line he couldn’t cross, a story he couldn’t stretch, or a spam email he couldn’t open. He was an accomplished puzzle master, survived almost exclusively off of French roast coffee, and documented his life (and subsequently our lives) through a series of increasingly blurry photos.

There was absolutely nothing that man couldn’t fix, and he was witty and hilarious until the very end.

He was an enthusiast in life. When something interested him, he ran at it full speed and became an expert. In a world where most people just exist, my Pepaw really lived. He loved us so fiercely and I will miss him forever."