Lois M. Lutter, 81, a homemaker, died Tuesday, Jan. 2, of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in her Cary home. Mrs. Lutter was the widow of Herbert W. Lutter, a McHenry County lawyer, banker and longtime member of the Board of Trustees of McHenry County College. Her son Paul credits his father’s career in large part to Mrs. Lutter. “My father was able to build the career he had because of the fact that my mother was able to take care of all the rest of the requirements, like raising a family and maintaining a home,” he said. Born in Chicago, Mrs. Lutter was raised on the North Side. At 23 she got married, and five years later the couple moved to Glenview and then to Northbrook. Her husband and his two brothers bought Three Oaks Farm in southeastern McHenry County, and in 1960 the family moved there. “She was the city girl who really found herself pushed to move to the suburbs to raise a family,” her son said. She soon came to enjoy country living, he said. “She fed the birds and the deer and all these cats and animals that descended on her,” he said. “She was very devoted to the sort of rural lifestyle which came to her later in life.” After her three children were raised and her husband died in 1987, Mrs. Lutter continued in her role as caretaker, taking neighbors and other community members to doctor appointments and grocery stores. “My mother was a woman who had these remarkable qualities, which really are probably throwbacks to another era, a complete selflessness,” her son said. Mrs. Lutter also is survived by a daughter, Janet Sperry Kinser; another son, Steve; and four grandchildren. Services have been held.
