The educational reformer was born in Jedburgh and came to Newcastle as an evangelist soon after 1850. At first, he preached in the Lecture Room beneath Grainger's 'Music Hall' in Nelson Street, but his hearers grew so numerous that a church had to be erected in Bath Lane. It was from here that Rutherford exerted his great influence in Newcastle as a preacher, doctor, educationist - and carer for the poor.
As early as the 1870s, Dr Rutherford began the practice of giving free breakfasts to poor children in the Bath Lane School on Sunday mornings. He also founded 'The Hoppings' on the Town Moor, as a temperance festival. Rutherford was the pioneer of free secondary and technical education in Newcastle. His chief aim was to establish an educational ladder from the elementary school to the university, by developing the new secondary type of school into the intermediate rung. It was to serve this end and under his inspiration that the school afterwards known as Rutherford College was gradually evolved. The initial step was the introduction of a 'higher class' for the more promising pupils at the elementary school which he had founded in Bath Lane in 1871. The experiment proved so successful that shortly afterwards it was decided to open a School of Science and Art as a separate institution in Corporation Street. The foundation stone of the new school was laid by Joseph Cowen (q.v.) on 21 November 1877. In 1885, the establishment was extended by the addition of laboratories, workshops and art rooms. The Rutherford Memorial College followed in 1892, was erected, the foundation stone again laid by Cowen.
These educational establishments have undergone much change of organisation, name and location in the decades since Rutherford's death (Rutherford Schools are now situated on the West Road), but his status as a pioneer is secure. A stained glass window in the University of Northumbria commemorates him, as does the prominent Rutherford Memorial Fountain (1894) in Bigg Market. One panel declares 'Water is Best'.