Dr. Robert "Bob" McMaster Butler

Robert McMaster (Bob) Butler, Ph.D., age 74, died peacefully on April 15th at his home in Asheville, NC.

Born May 17th, 1945, the son of career naval officer Capt. Ovid M. Butler and his wife Dorothy Day Butler, Bob and his three sisters moved as children up and down the east coast and to and from the west coast. He completed his last semester of high school in Alexandria, Virginia, and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1968.

Commissioned through Officer Candidate School, Bob served as the Army’s public information officer at Edwards Air Force Base, commanded a truck company in the Republic of Korea, and was discharged as a Captain in 1972.

Bob returned to North Carolina and earned a Master’s degree in English at North Carolina State University, where he was named Phi Kappa Phi Outstanding Master’s Student of 1973. He later completed a doctoral degree at Duke University with specializations in Medieval and Renaissance literature and linguistics while teaching full time at North Carolina State University and Northern Virginia Community College.

Bob then accepted a position with Alcorn State University in Mississippi and for the next twenty years taught a range of writing and literature courses there, eventually becoming Chair of the Department of English and Foreign Languages and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. He retired from Alcorn in 2010 as Professor Emeritus.

Bob taught also as Visiting Professor at the University of Nebraska and studied Old English manuscripts at Cambridge University, England, as a Fellow with the National Endowment for the Humanities. He presented several scholarly papers at national and international conferences and published on Old English manuscripts. He said he’d been fortunate to have spent his professional life in the landscapes, architectures, and classrooms of university campuses.

While teaching in Mississippi Bob met and married Port Gibson library director Nancy Batton, the love of his life and still point of his journey’s circle. He was the luckiest man ever, he said, to have lived in her shining presence. Nancy took him back to church, and he served as Junior and Senior Warden of St. James’ Episcopal Church in Port Gibson and on its altar guild.

Following retirement Bob returned with Nancy to North Carolina and settled in Asheville, where they served together on the altar guild of All Souls Episcopal Cathedral and where he helped Nancy garden. He liked language, reading, especially poetry and fiction, listening to music, playing bridge, working on household projects, and pulling for Tar Heel basketball. He loved visiting with his five children and step-children and with his and Nancy’s seven grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his sister, Sally Butler Runion and is survived by his wife, Nancy Batton Butler and their grandchildren, Jessie, Julian, Madelaine, Simon, Benton, Ford, and Alex; his son and daughter-in-law, Brooks and Debra Butler; his daughter and son-in-law, Bonner and Fred Odell; his stepson and wife, Sandy and Ann Batton; his stepdaughter and husband, Elizabeth Batton and Carver Brown; his stepdaughter and husband, Allison and Andrew Moreman; his sisters, Molly Butler Goodenough and Barbara Butler Davis; and 7 nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at All Souls Cathedral in Asheville at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to cancer research or All Souls Episcopal Cathedral’s Building and Grounds’ Fund.