Long before computers and spreadsheets, Tyus Butler was a human database of information about UGA graduates.
If you wanted to know when someone graduated, where the person lived, his or her profession, and likely the names of the person’s spouse and children, Butler probably could tell you. If the person had relatives who graduated from UGA, Butler probably knew their names too.
Butler, who died April 28 at age 94, was UGA’s director of alumni relations from 1956 until his retirement in 1983. A UGA graduate himself (bachelor’s degree in journalism, 1935), he is credited with modernizing what was then known as the UGA Alumni Society by organizing records, creating a statewide alumni network, starting numerous programs for alumni and becoming the primary link for thousands of graduates with their alma mater.
Known for his ability to remember names, dates, faces and facts, Butler worked at UGA for 44 years, first as a journalism teacher, then for 27 years as alumni director. In a time when the university’s alumni body was smaller and more closely knit, he excelled at personal contact, keeping tabs on graduates through phone calls, visits, correspondence (often personally responding to as many as 100 letters a day) and the daily perusal of local newspapers.
Butler is survived by his wife of 62 years, Eugenia, and three sons and their families. His funeral was held May 2 with burial in Oconee Hill Cemetery. Remembrances for Butler can be made to the University of Georgia Foundation for the Marion Tyus Butler Scholarship or to St. Stephen’s Anglican Church.