Chester Butcher, a retired Air Force brigadier general, died Nov. 15, 2013. He was 91.

Butcher graduated from West Point in January 1943 and was assigned to a fighter group in England. Shot down over France, he spent a year and a half in German hospitals and prisoner-of-war camps.

After returning to the United States, he graduated from Princeton with a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering in 1947. Later, he earned an MBA from George Washington University. After being assigned to Headquarters Air Force in 1951, he served as a White House aide in the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. By 1959, he was an executive officer to an assistant secretary of the Air Force and later a military assistant to the undersecretary.

In 1969, after other assignments, he commanded a task force at one of Thailand’s Royal Air Force bases in support of U.S. objectives in Southeast Asia. He had been promoted to brigadier general in 1968, and in 1970 he became the deputy commander of a NATO air force in Italy. He retired in 1974. The recipient of many military honors, Butcher was a command pilot.

He is survived by Harriett, his wife of 58 years; a son; and two granddaughters. A daughter predeceased him.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.


Graduate Class of 1947