Biography: Richard Colburn Butler III died in Little Rock on June 4, 2020. He was born September 21, 1937, at Trinity Hospital, 20th and Main Streets in Little Rock, AR to Gertrude Marjorie Remmel and Richard C. Butler. His grandparents were Edna Clok and R. Colburn Butler and Ellen Lucy (Nell) Cates and Augustus Caleb Remmel.

He is survived by his aunt, Jean Remmel FitzSimmons, of Southampton, NY; his cousins, Pratt Cates Remmel, Jr., Rebecca Couch Remmel, Mary Elizabeth Remmel Wohlleb, Raymond Roland Remmel, Nan Ellen Dickinson East, Haskell Lee Dickinson, II and Remmel Tyndall Dickinson, all of Little Rock; Kathryn Winn Eoff of Wimberley, TX.; Alexandra Cary Remmel Swoope and Harmon Lawrence Remmel of New York City; Rosalyn Jane Remmel Morgan of Lawton, IA; Emily Karen Remmel Lowry of Fayetteville, AR; his partner, Jeremy Carroll; and his “Sweetheart Darling” Dianne Mattinson.

He was predeceased by his parents, his cousins Marguerite Butler, Katheryn Fuess Clement, Catherine Remmel Matthews, Ruth Ellen Remmel, Marguerite Fuess Sidner and James Buchanan Winn III, and aunts and uncles Dorothy Butler Fuess, Kathryn Butler Winn, Harmon L. Remmel II, Augustus C. Remmel, Jr., Pratt Cates Remmel, Roland Rowe Remmel and Carrie Remmel Dickinson.

Richard was educated in the Little Rock and Alexandria, VA, public schools and was graduated from Central High School in Little Rock. He received an AB in History from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, VA, in 1959 and a Bachelor of Laws (now a Juris Doctor) from the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville in 1962. He studied at the University of Missouri in Columbia, and was graduated with a trust diploma from the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.

He served six years in the 431st Civil Affairs Company of the U.S. Army Reserve, with six months of active duty at Fort Polk, LA. After he returned to Little Rock, Richard practiced general law at House Holmes & Jewell from 1963 to 1968. He then became a trust officer for Commercial National Bank of Little Rock, serving there for 13 years.Richard was a board member and eventually asked to take on professional management of CONTACT, a telephone ministry funded by several churches including First United Methodist Church of Little Rock that provided psychotherapeutic counseling by telephone. He was available almost 24/7 at the nonprofit until it closed in 1984.

 His next employment journey was as a personal assistant to philanthropist Lucy Lockett Cabe and others. He worked with the late Mrs. Cabe for 18 years and loved being a part of her support for the visual and performing arts. When Mrs. Cabe moved to Dallas, TX, to be with her family during her last years, Richard moved to Washington, AR, where he had property and restored the Noel Owen Log House (1842), moved from Blue Bayou near Nashville. He kept dual residency in Washington and Little Rock until 2018.
A lifelong Wesleyan, Richard served his church, First United Methodist Church of Little Rock, on parish committees for Music, Worship, Ecumenical Affairs, and Mission & Outreach.

Always active in civic and community affairs, Richard was one of the incorporators and is a former board member of Big Brothers of Pulaski County (now Big Brothers/Big Sisters). Other boards on which he served include the Arkansas Chamber Singers, Arkansas Council of Churches and Synagogues (now Interfaith Alliance), Arkansas Genealogical Society, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Society, Central Arkansas Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, Chamber Music Society of Little Rock, Community Concerts Association, Gertrude Remmel Butler Child Development Center, Little Rock Wind Symphony, Mainstream (a support group for disabled persons to live independently), Oakland-Fraternal Historic Cemetery Park, Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation, Quapaw Quarter Association, Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas (now Preserve Arkansas), Scott Connections, UAMS Advisory Board for Psychiatric Research and UAMS Jones Eye Institute, He was a member of the Kiwanis Club of Little Rock, the Heritage Seekers Genealogy Club and the United Methodist Historical Association Museum.He enjoyed traveling, especially with the Arkansas Arts Center traveling seminars and inspecting Institute of Cultural Affairs human development projects in Germany, Egypt and India. Also, inspired by Mary Fletcher Worthen and Peg Newton Smith, he enjoyed being a tour guide at Mount Holly Cemetery.

Richard worked diligently in historic preservation to help people growing up in the 21st century to understand the charm of Little Rock’s and Arkansas’s past so that it would not be forgotten. He owned, restored or maintained historic houses in the 400 block of East 10th Street and the First Hotze House of Little Rock. He and Jeremy were restoring Palmer House in Monroe County when it suddenly was destroyed by fire in 2013. Richard received a 2019 National Historic Preservation Medal—one of 30 national medals awarded each year by the Historic Preservation Committee of the Daughters of the American Revolution—for his untiring efforts to  preserve and support historic structures throughout the state. He was the recipient of the Jimmy Strawn Award for his work in historic preservation from the Quapaw Quarter Association.

He served on the Pulaski County Republican Committee, the 2nd Congressional District Republication Committee and the State Republican Committee. He was Pulaski County Election Commissioner from 1966-68 and 1984-86. Richard called himself “an Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, George Bush Republican.” He enjoyed attending seven Republican National Conventions as part of the Arkansas delegation.

Services will be planned for a later date. Private burial will be in Mount Holly Cemetery, officiated by Reverend David Freeman.

Memorial donations may be made to the Kiwanis Activities Fund for Camp Pfeifer, The Chapel Fund at Presbyterian Village, Little Rock, AR, The Gertrude Remmel Butler Child Development Center of First United Methodist Church, Little Rock, AR; Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the Central Arkansas Library System or Gertrude Remmel Butler Fund for Neuro-ophthalmology at the Jones Eye Institute of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.