M. Rupert Cutler is a native of Detroit, Michigan. He is an environmentalist and a journalist focusing on conservation and local Roanoke issues. He received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in Wildlife Management in 1955 and a Master's and Doctorate of Philosophy degrees from the Department of Resource Management at Michigan State University in 1969.

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Cutler worked as an instruction book writer for Argus Cameras in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1956, he moved to Arizona where he edited the Winslow Mail, a weekly newspaper. In 1957, he accepted the post of executive secretary of Wildlife Conservation Incorporated in Boston and in 1958 he was hired by the Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries to be associate editor of Virginia Wildlife, the Virginia Game Department's magazine. In 1961, Cutler was promoted to Chief, Education Division, Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries. Cutler was then in Washington D.C. serving as editor of publications of the National Wildlife Federation (1962-1965) and then as assistant executive director of The Wilderness Society (1965-1969).

In 1969, Cutler returned to Michigan to study for his doctorate at Michigan State University and to work as a Graduate Research Assistant in MSU's Department of Resource Development. With his degree, he became assistant professor of resource development and the state's extension specialist in natural resources policy, a post which he held from 1972-1977. In 1977 he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve as assistant secretary of agriculture for conservation, research, and education. From 1977 to 1980 he provided policy direction to the U.S. Forest Service, the Soil Conservation Service, and USDA's research, extension, and library agencies. He was also senior vice president of the National Audubon Society (1980-1983), and executive director of Population-Environment Balance (1983-1987). From 1987-1990 he was the president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, an organization based in Washington, DC devoted to protecting animals and their habitats in the United States.

M. Rupert Cutler moved to Roanoke, Virginia in January 1991. From 1991 to February of 1997, he was the executive director of Virginia's Explore Park, a 1,000-acre outdoor living history museum and environmental education center on the Roanoke River in Roanoke and Bedford counties. In March of 1997, M. Rupert Cutler became the founding executive director of the Western Virginia Land Trust, a new, private, nonprofit association created to help preserve the natural, scenic, and cultural heritage of western Virginia on private land, using conservation easements. Between 2004-2009, he sat on the board of the Western Virginia Water Authority, which was created in 2004 to provide water and waste water treatment to the City of Roanoke and Roanoke County.

From 2002-2010, Cutler acted as a Trustee for the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, a semi-governmental organization created in 1966 to promote the use and preservation of Virginia's public lands. For part of this time he was also serving as President of the Roanoke chapter of the Kiwanis Club (2002-2003), of which he is a long-standing member. From 2006-2009 he also served as chair of the Steering Committee of the Nonprofit Resource Center of Western Virginia, which supports the work of regional nonprofits. He has also served on the boards of Opera Roanoke, the Harrison Museum of African-American Culture, Valley Beautiful, the Roanoke Urban Forestry Council, Historic Greenfield, and has worked on a number of committees to preserve and improve Roanoke and the environment.