Butler Gives Back

Life-long learner, teacher, rancher, mentor, conservationist, volunteer, philanthropist – all these adjectives describe Jay Butler, ’80. But however he may be remembered in the future, his primary desire is to “give back” to the people and places that have shaped him and to pass down the values they have taught.

At Georgetown’s Homecoming last fall, he and his wife Linda traveled from their ranch in Wyoming to be present at the ribbon cutting ceremony in the Asher Science Center. Jay, along with his father, Dr. John Butler and his wife Dr. LuAnnette Butler, gave funds for refurbishing Asher 112, the largest classroom space on campus and the one used for faculty meetings during Dr. Butler’s tenure as academic dean at Georgetown (1974 to 1980). LuAnnette Butler was a psychology professor at Georgetown from 1968 to 1980.

Previously, the Butler family donated funds to renovate a biology lab on the science building’s first floor. Both Jay and his father are retired educators of the life sciences.

Jay was born and reared in Sioux Falls, S.D., the eldest of three children. His mother, Dorothy, who passed away in 2020, was a native of Wyoming. She was raised on her family’s large cattle ranch south of Casper, originally obtained by her grandfather, Tom Robinson Sr., through the Homestead Act in 1916. The initial 320 acres expanded over the years as other homesteaders gave up and headed back east, selling their adjacent land to Robinson. He obtained cash for those purchases by drilling wells for other landowners in the Powder River Basin, which averages less than 14-inches of rain annually.

As a child, Butler would leave Sioux Falls every summer and spend weeks on the ranch with his grandparents. “I have wonderful memories of riding my horse, Buck, and moving sheep and cattle while on horseback and working with my grandfather on all kinds of ranch projects,” he recalls. His child-sized handprint remains impressed in the cement at the base of a windmill, a monument to those golden summers.

During that period, Dr. John Butler was a biology professor at the University of Sioux Falls before taking the academic dean position at Georgetown College in 1974, the middle of Jay’s junior year of high school. “At first I resented having to move,” Jay says about being uprooted, “but afterwards I thought it was one of the best things ever.” A westerner with a bent for biology like his dad, he loved exploring the different ecosystems of the area as well as the culture of the Bluegrass region.

Though tempted to return to the familiar and attend college in Sioux Falls, Jay elected to get his bachelor’s degree at Georgetown. Here he found friends in the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity and flourished in the sciences under the tutelage of beloved professors such as Dr. John Blackburn, Dr. Dwight Lyndsay, and Dr. Thomas Seay.

“Living on campus is a really positive experience. You can get involved with all the activities and build stronger friendships.” He is still in contact with English professor Dr. Steven May and has gone on gold panning

BUTLER GIVES B A C K

expeditions with him. “I think a lot of students tend to flounder at bigger universities. The personal relationships with the faculty members, such as Dr. Lindsey Apple, ’64, made a huge difference for me. It was a very good decision. I have only positive things to say about my college experience at Georgetown.”

One short-term course changed the direction of Jay’s life. He spent a month with other students in Arizona studying the ecology and geology of the desert while in the Grand Canyon. He fell in love with the area and chose Northern Arizona University (NAU) to obtain his master’s degree after graduating from Georgetown in 1980. There he was able to further explore the region on class field trips. At NAU he met his wife Linda, who was obtaining a master’s degree in art.

During the next three decades of his life Jay taught science to teenagers, along with helping to raise daughters Karen and Beth. He first taught biology at Judson School, a private boarding school in Arizona, and then eighth grade life science at Douglas Middle School in Converse County Wyoming when he took over the operation of Robinson’s Pronghorn Ranch, the family homestead that now covers 18,000 acres. As a teacher he reveled in watching his students experience the thrill of discovery on field trips he led, including Costa Rica and Belize while at Judson, and trips to Yellowstone with his eighth graders. Even after he retired as a teacher in 2011, Jay stayed active as an educator, serving on the Converse County School District’s Board of Trustees for a term and as a volunteer and trustee for the Douglas Boys and Girls Club of America for the past 10 years.

Like many active people, Jay’s retirement has been busier than when he was working full time. His reverence for the life systems of the planet naturally led him to seek ways to make the land entrusted to him as environmentally sustainable as possible. He allowed wind towers erected on the ranch to generate clean electricity for the region “They’re not a perfect source (of energy); there is no perfect source,” he explains.

He, along with other area ranchers, has participated in the National Audubon Society’s Conservation Ranching Initiative. This group helps ranchers incorporate bird-friendly grazing practices. By following strict protocols and habitat management plans, ranchers can have their beef products labeled “Audubon Certified,” which increases their value.

According to Butler, wildfires frequently occur, burning thousands of acres in a short time. While regular grass grows back quickly, the native sage brush, chief food source for the greater sage-grouse and other grassland birds, whose populations have been shrinking, is much slower to return. To save the birds and the ecosystem they inhabit, Butler and others have been cultivating the plants and then working with a habitat restoration team to replant them in grazing areas.

“The sage grouse are one of the key species of grassland ecosystems and we want to be sure and maintain a viable habitat for them.” He has also been planting cottonwood trees in the areas along the rivers and streams in the arid region. The trees provide habitat, food, shelter, erosion control, and shade, all of which help many types of life thrive. “You want your ranch to be sustainable and you want to make sure it’s left in good shape for down the road.”

Another cause Butler is passionate about is feeding the hungry. He is active in Food from the Farm and Ranch and Food from the Field, projects initiated by Wyoming’s First Lady Jennie Gordon. The programs urge local livestock producers as well as hunters to donate meat to local schools, nonprofit organizations, and food pantries. Volunteer food processors package the meat. Butler has personally donated to the program and encourages other ranchers and hunters to do so. More than 100 animals have been donated thus far.

The Pronghorn Ranch is so named because of the pronghorn antelope that range abundantly on its acres. Mule deer are also plentiful. Butler hosts hunters in groups that stay in accommodations he has on the property, and he always encourages participants to donate to the Food from the Field program.

In addition to his philanthropic gifts to Georgetown and NAU (he and Linda endowed an art scholarship there), Jay also finds fulfillment supporting the Douglas Boys and Girls Club. The food programs benefit the children and teens who attend after-school, summer, and other programs at the club. The organization, founded in 1860, emphasizes academic success, good character, citizenship, and healthy lifestyles. He is the current chairman of the board of directors and helped get a facility erected a few years ago, which is now already at capacity. His next major goal is to establish an endowment that will make sure there are funds to expand and maintain the work being done among the youth in the city. “Making a positive relationship in kids’ lives is what I love the most; watching them grow up and seeing them later and hearing that they are appreciative and glad to see you.”

Butler strongly believes in supporting the institutions that have helped him achieve success. “I think a lot of it is just paying back some of my thankfulness to Georgetown College for giving me such a good start in life. We alumni owe part of our success to the College. As we have financial successes, then we’re able to be philanthropic. I think a lot of students in my era are at that point in our lives. Why not reward the school that got you on your way to being the person you are today?”

Jay Butler in his 1980 Georgetown College Belle of the Blue senior portrait. On campus he was active in Phi Kappa Tau and in science organizations.