Broadus Nathaniel Butler, Ex-President Of Dillard, Dies
Times Picayune 01-12-1996

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Broadus Nathaniel Butler, president of Dillard University from 1969 through
1973, died Tuesday at George Washington University Hospital in Washington,
D.C. He was 75.

Mr. Butler, one of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, lived in
Silver Spring, Md., a Washington suburb. A hospital spokeswoman refused to
disclose the cause of death.

Mr. Butler, whose educational career spanned 40 years, was chief academic
officer at Texas Southern University when he was chosen to succeed Albert W.
Dent as Dillard's president.

"He left a strong impression academically," said Charles Teamer, the
university's vice president for fiscal affairs. "He was an outstanding
writer."

Mr. Butler established the Scholars-Statesmen Lecture Series, in which each
participant spent a week on the Gentilly campus. Among the lecturers were
Charles Wesley, a historian; Frederick D. Patterson, a founder of the United
Negro College Fund; Margaret Bush Wilson, a former leader of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People; and Percy Julian, a
chemist.

However, Mr. Butler became involved in a dispute with Dillard's trustees, who
wanted to change the university's traditional liberal-arts curriculum to
include courses that might have more appeal to young people.

The board's decision to add the courses prompted Mr. Butler to resign in
November 1973.

"In abandoning traditional courses, the board is determined to maintain
Dillard's . . . standards of excellence for each of its divisions," said
Revius Ortique Jr., a spokesman for the board at the time. "At the same time,
the board recognizes that there are new and exciting methods of achieving
excellence, and it is these new horizons that Dillard aspires to."

Students opposed Mr. Butler's resignation, and all but three faculty members
urged the board not to accept it.

But he moved on to become director of the Office of Leadership Development in
Higher Education for the American Council of Education. From 1977 to 1981, he
was president of the Robert R. Moton Research Institute in Virginia.

Later, he was vice president of the University of the District of Columbia.

Mr. Butler, a native of Mobile, Ala., graduated from Talladega College in
1941. He was a member of the 332nd Fighter Group in Italy, an all-black unit
known as the Tuskegee Airmen that fought discrimination as well as the Axis
forces.

After the war, he finished his doctorate at the University of Michigan and was
assistant to the U.S. commissioner of education. He held positions at
Talladega College, Wayne State University and Texas Southern before coming to
Dillard.

Mr. Butler was named a distinguished scholar by the Eli Lilly Foundation and
was a MacArthur Foundation distinguished scholar-at-large. He was on the NAACP
board.

Survivors include his wife, Lillian Butler; a son, Bruce Butler; a daughter,
Janet Reid; two sisters, Rose Nathan and Caster Butler; a brother, Edgar
Butler; and four grandchildren.

A funeral will be held Sunday at State Street A.M.E. Zion Church in Mobile.