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Businessman, philanthropist, community supporter and outdoorsman D.O. “Butch” Ratcliff died Sunday.

He was 75.

A native of Pulaksi, Virginia, Ratcliff made his way to East Tennessee straight out of high school when he enrolled at East Tennessee State University. There, he met the love of his life, Johnnie Smith Ratcliff from Morristown.

After college, the couple moved to Morristown where Ratcliff went to work in the Smith family business, Lea-Wayne Knitting Mills where he eventually became president.

He went on to serve as president of Shelbyville Hosiery Mills and the Tennessee Hosiery Association.

After he sold his business, Ratcliff joined the team at Re/Max working for Monty Sams and selling mostly commercial real estate.

“He was a very good agent,” Sams said.

Ratcliff was an avid outdoorsman according to his longtime friend Buzz Lacey. Ratcliff loved boating, fishing and hunting but golf was his true passion.

“He’s a big golfer – I’m not much of a golfer,” Lacey said. “I tried to play with him but didn’t meet up with his expectations. I tried to keep up.”

Sams was a member of Ratcliff’s regular foursome.

“I always enjoyed playing golf with him. He was a true competitor,” Sams said. “A lot of my favorite days in life has been playing golf with that group.”

Sams said Ratcliff enjoyed the competition and enjoyed even more when he came out on top.

“He could sure put a needle in ya … he loved to aggravate you,” Sams said. “He was quite a character.”

But when it came to joking around, Lacey said Ratcliff could take it as well.

“He was very jovial, cut up quite a bit,” Lacey said. “He enjoyed pulling jokes on others and others enjoyed pulling jokes on him.

“He could put it out and he could take it.”

Lacey said Ratcliff – who he met at Sunday school at First Presbyterian – was the consummate outdoorsman and their families enjoyed their time on the lake.

“We enjoyed going to the lake together, boating together. Our children grew up together,” he said, adding they often would play cards out on the boat, a process they called “aquaknocking.” “Boating and fishing, did some hunting – he was a big game hunter, a very good did a lot of hunting.”

But there was more to Ratcliff than his jovial nature.

He was also a large supporter of his adopted hometown.

He was Past-President of the Morristown Rotary Club, where he was a 50-year member. He was a founding member of Ducks Unlimited and an Eagle Scout.

Though there were many projects over the years, there was one that was a particular source of pride.

Ratcliff had seen his hometown of Pulaski institute a beautification program that planted flowers in the median. That program had been paid for with a sales tax increase, but in Morristown, Ratcliff partnered with Keep American Beautiful and raised the necessary funding.

On behalf of FAME – Flowers Around Morristown Enterprises – Ratcliff worked with the state and KAB to get the medians around town blooming. Each spring, you can still see a few of the flowers brightening up the roadway.

“He was the driving force behind that back in the ’90s,” said former Morristown Mayor Sami Barile, who was head of KAB at the time. “He was very proud of that.”

“He was very generous,” Lacey said.

Sams said that he feels lucky to have had a friend like Ratcliff.

“I’m happy to say he was a good man, a good family man and a good father,” Ratcliff said. “He was all of the things a man is supposed to be.”