Lewis H. Butler : Interview for the John W. Gardner Legacy Oral History Project
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Lewis H. “Lew” Butler discusses growing up in San Francisco, his long and productive career in public service, and his personal and professional relationship with John W. Gardner. Butler talks about growing up in San Francisco, and discusses how World War II affected his life. He went to MIT, enlisted after a year, and then went to Oregon State and Princeton. He recounts stories from those years and reflects on his decision to attend Stanford Law School, where he met his wife, Sheana Wohlford Butler. Butler discusses leaving his job as a corporate lawyer in San Francisco to work for the Peace Corps in Malaysia and his work after returning from Malaysia, when he consulted for the Ford Foundation and started an environmental law firm with Paul N. “Pete” McCloskey. He also discusses working with William Evers to start the Planning and Conservation League. As a one-time member of the Bohemian Club, Butler met Gardner there for the first time, a meeting which he recounts. He also recalls reading Gardner’s early books. After working on the transition team when Robert Finch became the secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, he stayed on as the assistant secretary for planning and evaluation. He remembers seeking Gardner’s advice on how to do the best work at HEW during this time. Butler talks about the protests over the Kent State killings and the ensuing appointment of Elliot Richardson as secretary, under whom he worked on national health insurance. He discusses teaching law at Berkeley for a year after leaving HEW, and then working with Philip R. Lee on founding the Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF in 1972, which led him to move from Washington, DC. Butler recounts returning to California and joining the board of the Public Service Center at Stanford University, where he worked with Gardner and Peter E. Haas, among others. He also discusses his work on preserving the Presidio, the Butler Koshland Fellowship program, and as a board member for California Tomorrow. He concludes by reflecting on Gardner’s life, noting his powerful leadership and unique mentorship style, emphasizing his modesty above all else.
Description
Type of resource | text |
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Extent | 1 text file |
Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Date created | May 9, 2018 |
Language | English |
Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
Interviewee | Butler, Lewis H. | |
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Creator | Butler, Lewis H. | |
Interviewer | Abel, Suzanne | |
Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
Subject | Gardner, John W. (John William), 1912-2002 |
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Subject | Civil Society > United States |
Subject | Leadership |
Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
Biographical profile | Lew Butler has dedicated his life to public service across a broad array of fields, including public health, environmental conservation, multicultural civic engagement, and the eradication of nuclear weapons. He was born and raised in San Francisco. Before going into the US Navy in World War II<u>,</u> he went to MIT on a scholarship<u>.</u> <u>A</u>fter the war with help from the GI Bill<u>,</u> he graduated from Princeton and Stanford Law School. He met his future wife, Sheana Wohlford, at Stanford. For ten years Butler was a corporate lawyer in San Francisco. In 1961 Butler and his family went to Malaysia where he helped establish the Peace Corps program and served as its director until 1964. They then returned to San Francisco where he and Paul N. (“Pete”) McCloskey, later a Congressman from the Palo Alto area, created the law firm of Butler and McCloskey, representing citizen groups concerned with the environment. It was in this period that Butler first met John Gardner; they had many friends and acquaintances in common. In 1969 Butler and his family moved to the Washington DC area where he served as assistant secretary in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). He consulted with John Gardner about how to get the best out of HEW, and saw him periodically in Washington. During that time he participated in the creation of the Environmental Protection Administration and prepared President Nixon’s proposal for national health insurance. In part because of the president’s conduct during the Vietnam War, Butler resigned from his HEW job in 1971 and returned with his family to San Francisco. The next year at the University of California, San Francisco, he co-founded with Dr. Philip R. Lee, then the chancellor of the university, the Institute for Health Policy Studies that is now named for Dr. Lee. They worked there together until the mid-1980s when Butler retired to devote his time to California’s future as a multicultural state through the nonprofit California Tomorrow, <u>the </u>board <u>of which </u>he chaired for twenty-five years. In the mid-1980s, Butler joined the board of the Public Service Center at Stanford, along with John Gardner, Mimi Haas, Peter Bing, Bill Somerville<u>,</u> and others who wanted to see Stanford take a strong leadership role in promoting public service in higher education. During that time<u>,</u> he worked with Sally Lilienthal to found the Ploughshares Fund to campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons, chairing its board until 2004. As part of the celebration of his 75th birthday in 2002, a large group of Butler’s friends created the Butler Koshland Fund for him at the San Francisco Foundation, in honor of Butler’s great friend and mentor Dan Koshland, the founder of the Foundation, and their friendship. Since then, that fund has supported the Butler Koshland Fellowships to encourage the development of future civic leaders for the Bay Area, California, and the nation. |
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Audio |
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Finding Aid | |
Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/wx940jn4544 |
Location | SC1355 |
Repository | Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Collection
John W. Gardner Legacy Oral History Project
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