Sam Butler, Culver Academies great, NYC legal legend, dies at age 94

Sam Butler ’47 W’43, a legal legend in New York City known for his negotiating skills and a Culver Academies legend known for his generosity, leadership and sage advice, has died at age 94.

Butler died Saturday, Jan. 4, in New York City.

Butler, whom The Wall Street Journal described in 2007 as “a living legend of the New York bar,” served as the presiding partner for Cravath, Swaine & Moore, one of New York City’s oldest law firms, from 1980 to 1999, the longest term for anyone holding that position except for the firm’s founding partner, Paul Cravath.

Butler served 20 years on the Culver Educational Foundation Board of Trustees, helping the school grow its endowment from $17 million to $130 million. Jim Henderson ’52 W’47, who served alongside Butler on Culver’s Board and is now chairman emeritus, said Butler was destined for greatness from the time he first stepped on campus in Woodcraft Camp in 1939.

Henderson said Butler was known for his rock-solid integrity, wisdom, courage, toughness, common sense, modesty, loyalty, steadiness under pressure and avoiding the limelight.

“He is a great representative of what a Culver education is all about: academic excellence, leadership, character and service to others,” Henderson said.

Henderson, the former longtime Cummins CEO and chairman, recalled how Butler helped him personally.

“He was the one advisor that was willing to believe we (Cummins) had a chance to remain independent when not one, but two takeover attempts were made back-to-back,” Henderson said. “His willingness to work tirelessly with us when the odds were long, even if it meant risking his firm’s reputation for backing winners, won’t ever be forgotten.”

John Buxton, who served as Culver head of schools from 1999 to 2016, described Butler as “the quintessential Culver man” and a “servant leader.”

“The most important refrain in the Culver song reminds us of the ‘heroes of Culver,’ and every time I sing it or hear it, I am reminded of men like Sam—men who honored themselves and their schools through lives lived well,” he said. “These were people of integrity, character and purpose. They were industrious, self-disciplined, and supportive of others. Sam was an admirable human being who served as a mentor and a model for others. He lived the Culver mission of leading by example.”

Henry Schacht, a former chairman and chief executive officer of Cummins, and later CEO of Lucent Technologies and a Culver emeritus trustee who served on the board from 1984 to 1993, described Butler as a “giant among giants.” 

“We were friends, colleagues on the Board at Culver, and contemporaries in the business world. Sam was the most respected corporate counselor to the major corporations in the U.S. He was the ‘go to person.’ Any corporation with any sense wanted Sam to represent them when the going got bumpy. His thoughtful counsel was often critical in working through difficulty. A good example was when Cummins was under attack by a takeover artist, Sam literally saved the company. Since he retired, there has not been anyone who has risen to the dominant position that he occupied. He was one of a kind.”

 

Butler, who made his mark at Culver Military Academy and Harvard University as both a standout student and athlete, credited Culver for much of his success. He told The Wall Street Journal in an interview in 2010 that he felt a deep debt of gratitude toward Culver because when he enrolled at the start of his sophomore year it propelled him from "goofing off" because he was bored with school in his hometown of Logansport, Indiana, where his father, Melvin, was the manager of a spring factory, to being one of New York City’s most prominent attorneys.

"My mother (Jane) used to say, ‘We lost Sam when he went to Culver at age 14,’ ” Butler said. "Culver is the reason why I'm sitting in an office in New York right now."

Butler said he learned to do things “the right way” at Culver, and he did a lot of things the right way. He graduated with honors in English, Spanish, mathematics, history and science, was elected to the Cum Laude Society and was valedictorian. At 6-foot, he was a top athlete during his years at CMA, playing basketball, football, track and boxing. He also was a lieutenant and personnel officer as a senior and was hall officer of West barrack’s “notorious” second floor and a noted bridge player.

"No matter what the field of endeavor, (Sam) always proved to be tops at it," read an entry in “Roll Call,” CMA’s yearbook.

Not quite everything. He got a C in military science, which he said was intentional to show that he was not a fan of the military system.

“Culver left me with two strong desires: to always have my shoes shined, and to never shine them myself. That was my view of the military,” he said.

He met his wife, Sally Thackston, when he was 16 and traveled one summer to visit his Culver roommate, Bill Ferguson ’47, at his home in Huntington, West Virginia. Butler would wake up early and walk next door to the Thackstons’ home to read the newspaper on their porch.

“That’s how their acquaintanceship started,” Ferguson said.

 

 

Butler chose to attend Harvard without ever visiting. His parents mistakenly drove him to Cambridge, New Jersey, that fall. Once he found his way to Cambridge, Massachusetts, Butler thrived at Harvard. He made the first-string freshman football team and then was an all-Ivy guard and linebacker and also excelled at rugby.

He majored in economics and was secretary of the famed Hasty Pudding Club, a theatrical student society, and president of the Owl Club. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude in 1951 and was awarded the Sheldon Traveling Fellowship.

He then went to Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the law review his first year and later became editor. The late Paul “Pete” Bancroft ’47, a Culver classmate, remembered Butler’s drive.

“In his first year at Harvard Law School he was No. 11 in his class, and it infuriated him,” Bancroft said. “He was never below one for the next two years.”

Butler was awarded the Sears Prize for having the highest grade-point average his second year of law school.

Former Harvard President Derek Bok remembers "a sort of indefinable competence” in Butler, his law review colleague.

"If Sam wanted to go through a brick wall, he would go through a brick wall while the rest of us were blunting our heads," he told “The American Lawyer” in 1982.

In 1952, Culver awarded Butler its McDonald Watch, given to the alumnus who had excelled in all activities in the first five years since their graduation.

Butler graduated in the top four from Harvard Law School magna cum laude. He clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sherman “Shay” Minton. He was drafted into the Army and was assigned to the Army Auditing Agency in Chicago, auditing government contracts.

Upon leaving the Army, he interviewed with five firms in New York City and asked each to list the top three firms in the city. Each listed themselves No. 1 and Cravath, Swaine & Moore No. 2. He joined the Wall Street firm Cravath, Swaine and Moore in 1956 and made partner in four years, barely half the time it usually took. He became presiding partner in 1980, and practiced with that firm until 2004, when he became special counsel.

 

Butler was a classic Wall Street corporate lawyer, practicing finance, governance, and mergers and acquisitions, both domestic and international. He gained the reputation of an outstanding negotiator. He helped to merge Squibb, a drug company, with Bristol Meyers. At the request of Warren Buffett, he engineered the sales of ABC/CAP Cities to Disney in August 1995 and, on the same weekend, CBS to Westinghouse, making him the only attorney ever to negotiate the sale of two major networks at the same time. He also negotiated the merger of Time and Warner Communications and in 1982 he helped get the government's 13-year antitrust lawsuit against IBM dismissed.

“He was known as a trusted adviser to the most successful CEOs of the largest companies in the U.S. He had a reputation for honesty, loyalty and common sense, traits instilled early on during his Culver days,” The Wall Street Journal wrote.

Henderson said Butler gave the same expert advice to Culver Academies for free.

“He has been a very generous donor to Culver for many years,” Henderson said. “Perhaps most important, Sam has been a passionate advocate for academic excellence and a one-man watchdog to ensure we never selected anyone but a distinguished educator as our head of schools – and I was the one being watched.”

 

 

 

He was elected a director of several public companies, including Ashland Oil for 23 years, GEICO for 22 years, U.S. Trust for 21 years, Olin, Millipore and VCA.

He also wrote numerous legal articles and was known for his charisma, his ability to quickly find the right answers and for being a tough and effective leader and consensus builder.

“Sam did everything with a style and grace that made the complicated look simple,” said Robert Joffe, who followed Butler as presiding partner at Cravath. “He combined a unique set of abilities – everything from a college football star to an academic hero to a successful lawyer on a legal or business front. That’s the sort of thing legends are made of, at least in our business.”

He chaired the Harvard College Fund from 1977 to 1984, served on Harvard’s board of overseers from 1982 to 1988 and was named president of the overseers on July 1, 1986, the same day Jim Henderson ’52 was named chairman of the executive committee of Princeton University’s board of trustees.

“I doubt very much if there is another preparatory school in the country which can cite as graduates and officers of its board of trustees, men who also sit as chairmen of the board of two Ivy League colleges," said then- Culver Academies Superintendent Ralph N. Manuel.

In 2001, Butler was awarded the Harvard Medal for “extraordinary service." He also served as a trustee the American Museum of Natural History, Vassar College, the September 11 Fund and the New York Public Library, where he established The Samuel C. Butler Historical Collections Endowment Fund to support the acquisition, preservation, and access of books and materials for research in the general subject of history. 

He was a longtime supporter of Culver through his generous financial support, providing legal advice, guidance and leadership through his work on the Board of Trustees. He also served in every significant volunteer role for his Culver class.

Henderson said he traveled to New York in 1980 to persuade Butler to join the Culver Educational Board of Trustees at a time when the Academies needed to attract a broader-based board to give confidence to its alumni and the world of secondary school education.

“The addition of such a distinguished and successful graduate – and from New York City, no less – gave others the confidence to sign on,” Henderson said.

He joined the board the same year as his friend, Paul Gignilliat ’49. Butler served on the board from 1981 to 2001, serving as vice president for 15 years starting in 1985, and remained an emeritus trustee. He also was vice president of the Legion Board from 1961 to 1973.

In 2001, Butler was awarded Culver’s Distinguished Service Award, which has been awarded to only a handful of people in Culver’s history. He also was named Graduate of the Year in 2005, also receiving the Logansport Medal on that occasion.

When Culver ran its “By Example” fundraising campaign in 2010 that raised a record $376 million, Butler made a significant contribution. One of the most important yearly awards for annual giving leadership at Culver was named the "Butler Award" in his honor.

 

 

 

Buxton, who was then head of schools at Culver, said that campaign saved the school because right after it was launched the stock market imploded and “it looked like we were going to be in trouble.”

"Our donors and alumni literally saved the school," he said.

Butler also helped build Culver in another way. In the summer of 1950, he persuaded Gignilliat to join him in a summer job building the foundation for the Culver Memorial Chapel.

“We carried things around for the real workers,” Butler said.

Henderson joked in awarding the Distinguished Service Award to Butler in 2001: “I’m surprised the chapel is still standing.”

Even after Butler retired, he kept an office on the 46^th floor of Cravath headquarters, where he could see the East and Hudson rivers and the Central Park Reservoir.

While accepting the Graduate of the Year Award in 2005, Butler told Culver students they should volunteer for educational, cultural, civic or social organizations.

“It will give you the enormous satisfaction of doing good for others and helping the less fortunate in our society,” he said. “It will also give you what I believe will be a welcome change from what is likely to be the daily challenge of succeeding in your career.”   

Buxton said what impressed him about Butler was that he made time for Culver when the commitment of time was clearly burdensome. “Sam made time for things important to him. “

“Sam was a special member of a remarkable group of like-minded alumni whose commitment to Culver ensured that this extraordinary school would flourish in the future. I am proud to have worked with someone of Sam’s caliber,” he said. 

Butler’s wife, Sally, to whom he was married for 71 years, preceded him in death on Oct. 12, 2023. He is survived by their three children Sam Jr. (Susan), Leigh Butler (Don Fowley) and Liz Boissard (Chris), nine grandchildren, Eliza (Jake Hudson), Mimi (Alex Minasian), Alison and Henry Butler, Nick (Derek Blasberg) and Jesse Brown (Zach Jhonk), and Maggie (Larsson Burch), Anna and Sam (Britt) Boissard, and eight great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held in the spring at the New York Public Library.