According to Rutherford , what happened at the meeting ?
By 1916 Rutherford had become one of the seven directors of the Watch Tower Society ; when Russell died on October 31 , 1916 he joined vice-President Alfred I. Ritchie and Secretary - Treasurer William E. Van Amburgh on a three - man executive committee that ran the Pennsylvania corporation until a new president was elected at the annual general meeting the following January .