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Eulogy for David Butler
Presented by Ewald Fox
St. Pius X Church
San Antonio, TX
July 22, 2000

A week ago, our world supply of goodness was diminished by an order with the death of David. I was fortunate to know him for over 25 years, which for U.S. military brats is somewhat of a record. There are two kinds of people that come out of that experience: those that make friends easily, and those who can name their true friends on the fingers of one hand. Those friendships are the ones that stand the test of time and distance. Now our group is lessened by his passing, but not diminished, since we have known him.

As his friends and family have seen over the last week, Dave may have had more friends than he ever could have imagined. David achieved early on in life that thing that some of us spend a lifetime pursuing. That thing is our cherished dream of what we want to do with our life. From his earliest years, Dave and journalism were connected closer than Siamese twins. He was fortunate enough to recognize his future and single minded enough to see it realized.

The measure of his success is easily seen. In an industry that is becoming more electronic and downsizing, he always moved up the ladder of responsibility and success. His was a respected name in the universe of journalism.

His brilliance and wit made some see him as an elitist and a know-it-all, but his passion for details and truth really did make him desire to be a know-it-all. As for his wit being dry -- well, as long as you brought a gallon or two of water you’d have no problems. As for being an elitist; no one who spent any weekend at Mom’s house could ever accuse him of that. Star Trek, Saturday Night Live and Monty Python aren’t exactly Learning Channel fare.

On his last visit here we caught the end of an episode of Third Rock From the Sun in which one of the main characters gives a eulogy for a detested co-worker. Try as he might, he can find no one that has anything good to say about the man. When the time comes for him to read his speech, he instead puts the man’s death in terms of physics.

Ultimately it was meant as a joke, but somehow, now, I find it strangely comforting.

I paraphrase: David was a man and a citizen of the world. As such, he was governed by the laws of physics. What we see before us is not or ever was really him, but merely his shell that contained the life-force or energy that makes us what we truly are. Science states that energy can neither be created or destroyed. Energy moves at the speed of light. Einstein stated that as anything approaches the speed of light its mass becomes infinite. So you can see, Dave is not gone. He has become infinite and as such surrounds us with his self and lives within our hearts both now and forever.

I’ll close with another quote from another funeral, one that I attended.

It was for the infant niece of another friend who died in an auto accident. Friends and family asked the same questions of why and what purpose does this death serve.

The answer was simple and fulfilling. The person said that the good die young so that they are not corrupted, while evil lingers that it may repent.

While we feel in some part of us the desire that Dave’s attacker be punished or meet a horrible end, Dave would be the first to give them the opportunity to repent.

That would give his death a meaning.

In either case we can be confident that they will receive their just punishment, if not in this world, then in the next.

-- Thanks to Aline McKenzie for sending this along

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Someone at the funeral in San Antonio Saturday added this:

We figure Dave Butler made his ascent into heaven last Monday.
In Denver, Dean Singleton was on the phone to janitorial services:
"Why the hell is my office filling up with locusts?"

Dave was at work early.

-- E-mail from an anonymous friend

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Dear friends of David Butler:

David's death has upset me greatly, and I hope you'll forgive me if I've become a bit maudlin.

Like all of you, I worked with David for many years. I knew him as a hard worker, a nice man and an interesting character. Was he one of my close friends? No, I can't make that claim. Why, then, am I upset over and above what would be expected after learning that a former co-worker had been brutally murdered?

Since this tragic story came to light, the old Houston Post network has been working overtime. I have heard from and contacted old acquaintances from Orlando to Anchorage; from Los Angeles to Newark; from Houston to Denver; from Oakland to Washington D.C. I've shared shock and disbelief with people thousands of miles away and as close as the next row of desks.

They say a death brings people together, and so it has done. David was more than just a guy I used to work with. No, David wasn't one of my closest friends, he was more: he was family.

Everybody who worked at The Post shares a bond. That bond is something I treasure and something I have never felt anywhere else I have ever worked. It's a bond I know David felt also.

I'll miss David, as we all will. I know I won't forget him. I pray for the capture of the killers and take comfort from knowing that each and every one of us are tied in a way that time and distance can't break.

-- Glenn Redus

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This is a copy of a letter I wrote to 50 editors at the Washington Post:

To the journalists of the Washington Post:

One of our brothers was murdered in your city last Friday night.

Just like many of us do day after day, he got up, put on his clothes, went to work, sweated out a deadline, and put his portion of the newspaper to bed and headed home. This time, Dave Butler, 42, assistant managing editor of the Stars and Stripes Pacific edtion did not make it home. He was beaten brutally to death and left in a used car sales lot.

He put the paper to bed and took the Metro back to his apartment. He never made it. He was found early Saturday the morning. Police responded to loud voices. An autopsy has been performed, so we understand, yet we have no official cause of death. Dave worked with many of us here in Houston at the now-defunct Houston Post. He was a devout newspaper man. I worked on the sports desk with Dave laying out the front page while he diligently took care of inside copy. No task was too small or too large for Dave. My fellow editors and friends from the Post tell me that Dave was really hitting his stride at Stars and Stripes. A talent wiped out by brutality in the Washington D.C. area.

Brother and sister journalists of the Washington Post . . . what happened? Who slayed our fellow newspaper editor?

We appreciate your initial report by Patricia Davis, Jamie Stockwell, Steven Gray and Phuong Ly. We will be keying into your on-line service each morning to try and learn more about this travesty.

Yes, the Houston Post is no more, but we "Toasted Posties," as we call ourselves, are all over the world. Many of us work for the Houston Chronicle, other newspapers and some in other industries. Some of us are at the British Open awaiting word from across the Pond. But we keep together through the Internet. We are looking to you for your help in unearthing the perpetrators of this sick and ugly act.

Any story or editorial would ease our hearts and would be a tribute to this fellow journalist's memory.

We plea for your support. We pray that you and your families are safe when they try to make it home from a day or night working at the newspaper.

Greg Miller
League City, Texas resident
Former sports editor of the Houston Post
Now document editor for the space program
Eternal friend of the late Dave Butler

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y'all,

wish i could be there, but it's impossible. i'm at the british open... dave should be editing my copy.....

prayers are with everyone.

melanie (hauser)

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I just returned from the memorial service held at Catholic University in Washington and thought some of David's friends might be interested in hearing about it.

It was a simple and touching afternoon. I hope some of his Texas friends can attend the funeral. The nice turnout here, and warm recollections of David, obviously meant a great deal to his mother.

Some 60 to 70 people attended; most seemed to be Stars and Stripes colleagues, some were in military uniform. David's friend since sixth grade, Charles Jones, put together a lovely service. A priest gave readings from Lamentations 3:17-26 and Luke 12:35-40, and spoke briefly, then invited comments.

Professor Jones recounted funny tales about his and David's self-edited grammar school comic book, featuring the adventures of Captain Paramecium and his sidekick, Amoeba Boy, who looked suspiciously like Chuck and David themselves. He was most cheerful and comforting. Other colleagues told stories from the newsroom; the famous skeptical Butler arched eyebrow was duly noted from those who had been on the receiving end of it ("skewered," i think, was one word used).

His mother and sister were in the front row, beautifully composed, gracious, listening with smiles to the tales being told on him. At the end, his mother stood and expressed her thanks, and even told a tale on David herself. (It was great: She once got a serious little reminder from him as a boy that said "Mom _ don't forget to wake me at 8 for cartoons.") A tear was shining on her cheek.

David looked just like his mother.

There was also an announcement that was greeted with surprise and pleasure by his colleagues at Stars and Stripes; evidently the honor hadn't yet been announced. This is included in the text that follows, which was read at the service.

"Good afternoon. I am Col. Peter Sweers, U.S. Army Retired and former editor-in-chief of the Pacific Star during the Vietnam conflict, 1967-68-69. I appreciate this opportunity and the honor of expressing our deep regrets from the Stars and Stripes Association and the Stars and Stripes Museum.

"The association has over 500 members from all over the world, as far away as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, East Asia, the Pacific, Germany, other parts of Europe, and more recently Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. Our members are mostly former 'Stripers' who were journalists, printers, and in production and circulation. We also have many current members who are still active and working for Stars and Stripes worldwide, including several from the current headquarters in the National Press Building in downtown Washington.

"Last year, David Butler joined us at our annual convention and reunion in Bloomfield, Missouri -- the birthplace of Stars and Stripes during the Civil War and now the home of the Stars and Stripes Museum. We were looking forward to his joining us at our reunion 2000 this year in Alexandria, Virginia. David was to be nominated to our board of directors. He was to be our link to Stars and Stripes Central in Washington.

"On behalf of all our members and former staffers of Stars and Stripes all over the world, I would like to express our deepest sympathy and profound regrets at the loss of a colleague and superb journalist.

"Although words seem to say so little, I hope they help in some small way to ease the sense of loss we are all experiencing today.

"May God bless David."

-- Patricia Howard, July 20

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