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Home builder shaped bay area

Charles Rutenberg had a knack for development, even if he fell on hard times later in life.

CLEARWATER - Charles Rutenberg could stare at miles of empty woodland and see the future of the Tampa Bay area.

As a developer and home builder, Rutenberg saw promise in places no one had thought possible 50 years ago. Some questioned his foresight.

But Rutenberg, a World War II veteran, built anyway.

On Sunday, hundreds of mourners remembered Rutenberg, 80, at a memorial service at a Jewish temple built on land he donated. A savvy land speculator, Rutenberg helped reshape the community by building large parts of it, friends and family said.

Rutenberg, who died Friday, never met property he didn't like, said brother Arthur Rutenberg, also a prominent Florida home builder.

"Charlie was probably one in a handful of people that could see a piece of land and know what it's right for," Arthur Rutenberg said. "Charlie always had an eye for land."

Born in Chicago, Charles Rutenberg moved to Clearwater in 1955, where he started to develop large residential sections of Pinellas County, including most of Countryside in Clearwater.

As his developments grew, so did his profile.

In 1969, Rutenberg's companies, Imperial Home Corp. and Rutenberg Construction Co., became part of U.S. Home Corp. With Rutenberg as president, U.S. Home became the nation's largest home builder.

He later became chairman of the board and chief executive of Republic Bank and Life Savings and Loan Association. He also reopened his own home building company, Rutenberg Corp.

In all, Rutenberg built more than 10,000 homes across the Tampa Bay area and some 125,000 homes nationwide. He developed scores of office buildings and shopping centers in the area, including the plans for Clearwater's Countryside Mall.

"Charlie was a builder," said Arthur Baseman, Rutenberg's rabbi at the Temple B'nai Israel for more than 30 years. "He was a builder of homes. He was a builder of people. He was a builder of pioneers."

Later in life, Rutenberg built huge debts. In 1993, Rutenberg filed for bankruptcy, saying he owed creditors almost $40-million. A recession in the housing market shifted his fate, Rutenberg said at the time.

"I remember calling him. I said, "I want you to know I'm thinking of you,"' Baseman recalled. "He said, "I'm on my feet, Rabbi."'

It got so bad that Rutenberg auctioned off portions of his estate in 1996 to raise money. Some proceeds went to Ruth Eckerd Hall, where he had been chairman of the management group.

"Certainly, later in life he had physical and fiscal problems," said Arthur Rutenberg. "But nobody could handle adversity with such courage and such grace."

Aside from being a prominent builder, Charles Rutenberg was an active civic leader. He donated land on Belcher Road so a new Jewish temple could be built. He also was a former president of the Clearwater Symphony.

Both he and his wife, Isadora Rutenberg, played the cello.

Rutenberg never dwelled on his achievements, family members said. He never sought recognition. In his final days, he was thinking about his next project.

"Charlie lived life the way he drove a car," said brother Daniel Rutenberg. "He never looked through the rearview mirror."

Along with his wife and two brothers, four children and 11 grandchildren survive him.

But Sunday, friends said his influence spreads much further.

"He was so much a part of this community," Baseman said. "For so many years, he was a bulwark, a pillar, on which it rested."