Patrick Butler, 54; was civic-minded lawyer

PATRICK BUTLER

From coaching children to bringing Communion to shut-ins, from legal work to supervising swimmers as a lifeguard, Patrick M. Butler was there for those needing his presence.

"He was one of the most civic-minded and giving individuals I've ever known, and he truly cared about everyone in his community," said his wife, Susan.

Mr. Butler, a land use lawyer who spent summers on Cape Cod as a boy and decided to make it his home, died Thursday at Lahey Clinic in Burlington of complications from surgery. He was 54 and lived in Centerville.

A partner with Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP in Boston, Mr. Butler managed the law firm's Hyannis office, where he represented businesses, healthcare institutions, and nonprofits, often in their dealings with the Cape Cod Commission, a local regulatory agency.

"Pat was a dear friend, a fine lawyer, and one of the firm's most respected and beloved partners," Michael Mooney, managing partner of Nutter McClennen & Fish, said in a statement posted on the firm's website. "Pat helped found and managed our Hyannis office and was thankful for the opportunity to live and work in the Cape Cod community that he loved and to which he dedicated so much of his time and talent."

That love of Cape Cod developed when Mr. Butler was growing up in Rochester, N.Y., and his family spent summers in a rented house in Hyannis Port. When he was old enough, he became a lifeguard at the beach.

"He was always winding up on the golf car that President Kennedy was driving the kids around in," said his brother Bill, of Hyannis Port. "The president would come out once in a while, the kids would jump on, and he'd drive from his residence up to the village store. Pat played with a bunch of the Kennedy kids and somehow managed to grab a seat on the cart."

When Mr. Butler was 14, his family moved from Rochester to Cape Cod. He went to Tabor Academy in Marion, where he "was a go-getter from the beginning," his brother said.

"Even when he was at Tabor, he was starting to work on getting a better facility for the hockey team," said Bill's wife, Elizabeth.

That continued at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, where "he believed that anything was possible," his brother said. "He was involved with starting up the construction of the Hart Recreation Center."

"He was goalie of the hockey team, and his main mission was getting that [facility] built," Susan Butler said, adding that more recently he helped lead fund-raising efforts for the Hyannis Youth and Community Center Foundation, serving on the board of directors.

He graduated from Holy Cross in 1976 and Suffolk University Law School in 1979.

"He was always involved with youth, whether it was coaching his sons' hockey or baseball teams, or running mock trials for students in the public schools, or teaching catechism when he was younger," she said. "Children were a huge part of his life."

Mr. Butler volunteered as a leader with the Barnstable Youth Hockey Association and the Barnstable Horace Mann Charter School, where he served on the board of trustees. He also was chairman of the Cape Cod Healthcare Foundation's board of trustees and worked with the Cape and Islands United Way.

In 1995, the Cape Cod Economic Development Council honored Mr. Butler with a leadership award. Two years later, he was the Hyannis Area Chamber of Commerce's citizen of the year.

"Pat was one of the firm's most successful attorneys and a mentor and role model for many of our young lawyers," Mooney said in the law firm's statement. "He had a warm and engaging presence."

Mr. Butler met Susan Jameson, whom he married in 1985, when she was referred to him for his legal expertise.

"I was giving a co-worker some legal advice, and I'm not an attorney," she said. "Someone suggested we go see this attorney, Patrick Butler, and Patrick proceeded to give my co-worker the same advice I had given.

"When I first met Patrick, I just felt he had the biggest heart," she said. "He was already, at such a young age, involved with the community, working with the American Cancer Society, and over the years his heart just grew bigger. There are very few charitable organizations on the Cape that Patrick didn't have a hand in."

Family and church were always first in his heart, though, beginning with his wife and his sons, Jay and Peter.

"Beyond what he did for the community, his biggest, greatest love was for his family," said Mr. Butler's niece Katie Galbraith, of Creedmoor, N.C. "You could feel it when you were around him. More than anything, that was his legacy."

Susan Butler said her husband also was a reader at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Osterville, and volunteered to bring Communion to those unable to leave their homes for services.

"Patrick actually was very humble about it," she said. "I think very few people knew that he did that. He did not like the spotlight on him, even though he couldn't avoid it because of what he was doing."

In addition to his wife, two sons, brother, niece, and sister-in-law, Mr. Butler leaves two other brothers, Michael of Chicago and Christopher of Pittsburgh.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. today in St. Peter's Episcopal Church. Burial will be private.