Graduating with a Master of Arts degree in history, he then went onto the United States having gained a scholarship for postgraduate study at the University of Michigan.
His Doctor of Philosophy thesis covered the subject of the federal government in South Africa in the late nineteenth century.
In addition, the selection panel at the time favoured academics that were educated in Britain, seeing them as superior to those who had received degrees from New Zealand universities.
[1] During the Second World War, Rutherford joined the New Zealand Military Forces and was posted to serve with the 3rd Division in the Pacific Ocean Areas.
He was survived by his wife Rose née Mann, a former school teacher who he had married in 1932 at Southampton, and the couple's four children.