1926
Mr. Butterfield is born in Pensacola, Florida to Horace Bushnell and Susan A. Butterfield.
1944
Mr. Butterfield graduates cum laude from St. John’s Military Academy in Wisconsin, having been elected student body president at Coronado High School in California one year earlier.
1948
Mr. Butterfield begins U.S. federal service as an aviation cadet in the Air Force’s flying training program.
1949
Mr. Butterfield is commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force and becomes a rated military pilot.
1951
Mr. Butterfield is assigned to the 86th Fighter Group in occupied-West Germany, where he serves as group gunnery officer and flies for two years as right wingman and deputy leader of America’s only jet formation aerobatic team in Europe throughout the 1950’s.
1956
Mr. Butterfield receives a Bachelor of Science in political science from the University of Maryland and becomes operations officer of a fighter-inceptor squadron in Tennessee.
1957
Mr. Butterfield becomes an assistant professor at the United States Air Force Academy.
1962
Mr. Butterfield is commanding officer of a tactical reconnaissance squadron in Japan and later Vietnam. He flies 98 combat sorties and is awarded four Air Medals, the Bronze Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
1965
Mr. Butterfield becomes Military Assistant for White House Matters in the Immediate Office of the Secretary of Defense, and begins off-duty graduate studies in International Affairs at George Washington University.
1967
Mr. Butterfield graduates from the National War College, receives a Master of Science from George Washington University, and is assigned as Senior U.S. Military Officer and Commander-in-Chief Pacific Representative to the Australian government.
1969
Mr. Butterfield is appointed Deputy Assistant to the President by President-Elect Richard Nixon, to serve as Deputy Chief of the White House Staff. Upon accepting this position, he retires from military service.
1973
Mr. Butterfield is appointed Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. In July, he appears before the Senate “Watergate” Committee relative to the President’s role in the on-going scandal, and reveals that “all the President’s oval office conversations are recorded.”
1974
Mr. Butterfield is called as a witness to testify before the House Judiciary Committee during its deliberations of the President’s impeachment. During his testimony, he states that the President was obsessed with the probing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, and, in March of 1973, became the “director-general” of the White House cover-up.
1975
At the request of President Ford, Mr. Butterfield retires after 27 years of federal service. He serves as a guest speaker at Princeton University, then lectures for a year on ethics in government under the auspices of the American Program Bureau.
1977
Mr. Butterfield serves as executive vice president of the International Air Service Company in San Francisco, director of Aloha Airlines in Hawaii and a lecturer at quarterly intervals at the University of California, Berkeley.
1979
Mr. Butterfield becomes president of California Life Corporation, a holding company in Los Angeles, California.
1983
Mr. Butterfield founds the consulting firm, Armistead & Alexander, Inc., which specializes in productivity improvement. He serves for the next ten years as chairman and chief executive.
2005
Mr. Butterfield receives a Master of Arts in American History from the University of California, San Diego. He is appointed by the chancellor to serve a third year as chairman of Chancellor’s Associates.
2013
Mr. Butterfield becomes chairman of San Diego’s Brain Observatory, director of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, vice president of the Dr. Seuss Foundation, and begins lecturing in England. He also works with author Bob Woodward on his book, “The Last of the President’s Men,” about Mr. Butterfield’s White House years.
2017
Mr. Butterfield is honored with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award from Marquis Who’s Who.