J. Henry “Hank” Butta, who rose from the mail room to become
president of the old Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co. and was a close
adviser to former Gov. William Donald Schaefer, died of heart disease Tuesday
at his Davidsonville home. He was 90.
Associates called Mr. Butta a tireless
promoter of Baltimore who worked to help win a National Football League franchise after
the Colts left for
Indianapolis in 1984.
Born in Baltimore and raised on Linwood
Avenue, he was the son of John Butta and Margaret Cherigo.
His family lacked the tuition to send Mr.
Butta to Loyola High School, but a parish priest suggested that he try out for
an athletic scholarship. The Rev. Francis Childress had noticed that Mr. Butta
excelled in soccer and believed he would be a natural kicker.
His kicking skill “was obvious for
all to see,” wrote The Baltimore Sun’s John Steadman in 1988. “It was then that
coach Ed Hargaden, on a late summer day in 1943, decided that the walk-on
freshman, hoping for a scholarship, had a chance to help Loyola High School
become a championship contender.”
Mr. Butta went on to be recognized by high school sportswriters in the 1940s.
He played in the old Baltimore Stadium before a crowd of 4,000 in a 1945 game
against Patterson Park. He was his school’s honoree at the 1947 McCormick
Unsung Heroes Dinner.
While a Loyola student, he was working the
stage crew at a student performance and, from behind a curtain, saw a young
woman seated in the audience. He told his friends he was going to marry her. He
and Anna Rose Janowiak were wed in 1949.
After graduating from Loyola at Blakefield,
Mr. Butta was offered a scholarship to kick for Georgetown University. He
declined it and instead took a job working for a road contractor to help
support his mother.
He then walked into 327 St. Paul St.,
C&P's office, looking for a job.
“They said they weren't hiring anybody but
World War II vets," Mr. Butta recalled in a 1991 Sun article. "But
they took my application anyway. Then they called me the next day and said I
could be a mail boy."
He made $18 a week.
“Among the upwardly mobile executive ranks
of Bell Atlantic Corp., J. Henry "Hank" Butta remains an anomaly: He
has commuted from the same house for 18 years, he vacations in Ocean City, and
his idea of fun is to go crabbing in the Wye River using chicken necks for
bait,” The Sun reported in 1991. “And when this man of decidedly simple tastes
retires Sept. 1 from Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co., the local phone
company that is owned by Bell Atlantic, he will leave as one of the most
influential executives in Maryland. ...”
He went from the mail room to working in
manholes and was later a cable splicer, a lineman, a telephone installer, a
central office repairman and a service representative before moving into
management in the 1960s.
“He said he installed a phone in every house
in Little Italy,” said his daughter, Susan Cavender of Largo, Fla.
Mr. Butta was named vice president of
C&P of Maryland in 1979, the same year he struck up a friendship with
Schaefer, then mayor of Baltimore. Mr. Butta became president of C&P July
1, 1988, and chief executive officer Jan. 1, 1990. He retired in 1991.
At the time of his retirement, Mr. Butta
worked from a penthouse suite at 1 Pratt St.
“His expansive office, which has a panoramic
view of the Inner Harbor, is filled with reminders of
his journey up the executive ranks: There's a coffee cup that bears a picture
of a hard-hat worker, a stack of congratulatory letters from linemen,
installers and repairmen, and a C&P plaque that reads: ‘Quality Begins
Here,’” said The Sun article.
The article also said civic and business
leaders praised Mr. Butta as a success story and as a public citizen who used
his post atop the state's telephone company to help raise money to help
impoverished persons insulate their homes, and who fought to regain a National
Football League franchise for Baltimore.
“For several years we had a hospitality
suite at the annual National Football League owners meeting,” said attorney
Herbert J. Belgrad. “Herb was a good man and a self-made man and his personal
commitment and enthusiasm made him an instrumental part of our team and our
efforts to get a franchise.”
Mr. Belgrad recalled Mr. Butta’s ability to
develop friendships and good personal relationships with NFL team owners.
“He got to know them, their wives and their
children,” Mr. Belgrad said. “Our suite was a popular gathering spot. We had
crab meat and crab balls ready.”
Then-Mayor Schaefer named him to the
chairmanship of the Corporate Stadium Task Force, which recommended building a
new stadium complex at Camden Yards. Mr. Butta later directed Mr. Schaefer’s
transition team after he was elected governor in 1986.
Mr. Butta was a leader of an effort called
the Baltimore Blue Chip-In. The fundraiser assisted causes imperiled by
government budget cuts. He also served as chair of the board of governors of
the National Aquarium, and was a past director of the Baltimore Symphony
Orchestra and the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association. He also
served on the boards of the University of Maryland Medical System and the
Baltimore chapter of the American Red Cross.
He held a knighthood in the Roman Catholic
Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. He and his wife enjoyed
travel.
A Mass of Christian burial will be held at
11 a.m. Monday at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Roman Catholic Church, 1800 Seton
Drive in Crofton.
In addition to his
daughter, survivors include a son, David Butta of Edgewater; two other
daughters, Anne Butta of Davidsonville and Marybeth Lebherz of Frederick; four
grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. His wife of 44 years died in 1993.
