Richard Rutter, '54, has indulged his attachment to the Wizard of Oz by addressing mail to himself at Emerald City, rather than the Emerald Hills neighborhood where he lives in Redwood City. Those letters always arrive.
Rutter, a retired orthodontist who was a longtime professor at the University of the Pacific's dentistry school in San Francisco, has long been immersed in all things Oz. His vast collection starts with about 1,700 Oz-related books, two of which are first editions of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. But more conspicuously, for 18 years Rutter competed in a costume competition at a storied convention for Oz fans in the Western United States. He won 10 times, with Tik-Tok and Apple Tree among his favorite getups. In 2000, a top-hat-and-frock ensemble in the image of the Wizard helped get him the lead mention in a front-page New York Times story about Oz devotees.
Other passions range from Sherlock Holmes to Stanford athletics—son Jim, '86, is an avid collector of University sports memorabilia—and Rutter's home also features an array of family keepsakes. Ultimately, though, there's one room, added with sudden inspiration, dug into dirt and made solid for a host of Oz collectibles, that has a unique importance heralded by its entrance: a path of yellow bricks, carefully set down by Rutter himself.
Mike Antonucci is a senior writer at Stanford.
