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| Friends and family
celebrated Kay Butterfield’s 100th birthday July 27 in the Office of the
President. Kay Butterfield is the wife of the late Victor Butterfield, who served as
Wesleyan’s president 1943-1967. Pictured above is Middletown Mayor Sebastian
Giuliano declaring July 27 Kay Butterfield Day in the City of Middletown. |
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| Posted 07.28.06 |
Kay Butterfield Celebrates 100th Birthday at Wesleyan
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Kay Butterfield, wife of former Wesleyan
President Victor Butterfield, turned 100 July 27. She celebrated the day
with friends and family during a celebration at the President’s House.
Kay has lived a life of idealism and service. She was born July 27, 1906 in
Brooklyn, N.Y., the daughter of Philip Geyer and Sophie Westerman Geyer. Her
grandfather, Philip Geyer, Sr. had emigrated from Bavaria, settling first in
Newark, N.J, where he and his brothers established a brewery. The family
moved to Brooklyn, and Kay’s father followed his father into the profession
of Master Brewer, eventually owning Frank’s Brewery.
 In 1919, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibition, caused a
reversal of fortune for the Geyer family, which had all its assets invested
in the family brewery. One result was that Kay would eventually have to
finance her own college education.
Kay graduated from Girls’ High School in Brooklyn in 1922, one month shy of
her 16th birthday. In the spring of her senior year, searching the school
bulletin board for employment opportunities, she spotted a notice for a
city-wide essay contest for a one-year scholarship to the Manhattan Business
School. She won the prize, attended in 1922-23, and then earned enough money
as a legal secretary on Wall Street to pay for her first year of college.
In 1924, Kay entered Cornell University as a freshman. She was the publicity
manager for the Women’s Varsity Council; the women’s editor for the Cornell
Daily Sun, a varsity member of the women’s basketball team; and president of
Delta Gamma Sorority. She also was involved in Alpha Chi Alpha, the honor
society for journalism; Raven and Serpent, the junior honor society; and
Mortarboard, the senior honor society.
During her junior year at Cornell, Kay met Victor Lloyd Butterfield at a
dance. The duo got married June 11, 1928. Two days later, Kay graduated with
a bachelor’s of art in English. She had paid her entire way through college
by working as a secretary and typing student papers, and as a legal
secretary in Manhattan during the summers.
The Butterfields moved to Deerfield, Mass. where Vic taught and coached at
Deerfield Academy and Kay taught fifth and sixth grade in a single classroom
in the Deerfield Elementary School. She called it “baptism by fire.”
In 1929, Vic joined the faculty of the Riverdale Country School in the
Bronx. Kay taught mathematics to all grades at the Neighborhood School in
Riverdale. An apartment and meals were included at Riverdale, allowing them
to save all their earnings for graduate school for Vic. In 1931, the couple
moved to Cambridge, Mass., where Vic entered Harvard as a Ph.D candidate.
Kay became a door-to-door salesperson and typed doctoral theses for extra
income. Her habits of thrift and industry enabled Vic and Kay to spend the
summer of 1934 in Europe after Vic’s resident Ph.D work was completed.
 Vic was hired by Wesleyan as the dean of Admission from 1935 to 1941, and
worked as the associate dean from 1941 to 1942, acting president in 1942,
then president from 1943 to 1967.
In 1938, the Butterfields built their first house on a four-acre plot on
Randolph Road in Middletown. Kay cut all the studs and joists with a power
saw, cut rock wool into bats for the insulation, and secured them with slats
that she nailed in. They lived there until Vic’s appointment as president in
1943 and, then moved to a brick house on High Street. When the war ended,
they moved into the President’s House at 269 High. After Vic’s retirement,
they went back to their beloved small house on Randolph Road.
During the years of Vic’s presidency, Kay was heavily involved in college
life. She loved the seminars, conferences, concerts, and the sporting
events. She was a regular at games and matches, particularly football,
basketball, and wrestling. She volunteered for decades at the Wesleyan Blood
Drive, registering donors, as well as donating blood herself.
Much of her energy went toward the job of entertaining at the President’s
House. Money was scarce in those days, and badly needed to improve faculty
salaries. So Kay economized by cooking and baking for receptions and dinners
for trustees, faculty, students and honorary degree recipients. On one
occasion, during a period of intense rivalry in football between Trinity and
Wesleyan, she even cooked and served dinner for both varsity teams on the
night before the big game.
Kay became involved early on in the Middletown community. Before her own
children were born, she was a Girl Scout leader. The YMCA was her earliest
and longest commitment. As a member of the Women’s Board, she help nurture
the girls’ club. She also raised large sums of money for the YMCA through
her chairmanship of the Y’s annual Tour of Homes. When the women’s lounge
needed new slipcovers, Kay and her fellow board members brought their sewing
machines for a bee, and made them all themselves. It was through the “Y”
that Kay was a long-time member of the Middletown League of Women Voters, as
well as its president from 1936-37. She was also a member of the Board of
Education (1952-1965), an annual campaigner for the United Way, and a Board
member of Connecticut Citizens for Public Schools.
She also had a long connection with the Davison Art Center. In the early
1960s, Curator Heinrich Schwarz, hoping to add to the large print
collection left to Wesleyan by George W. class of 1892 and Harriet Davison,
proposed to Kay the idea of forming a “Friends of the Davison Art Center” to
raise money for acquisitions.
Kay has been the recipient of a number of awards for her service, including
the B’nai B’rith “Woman of the Year” award in the 1950s, the Baldwin Medal
for service to Wesleyan in 1982, and received an honorary “Doctor of Humane
Letters” from Wesleyan in 1997.
In the late 1960s, after Vic’s retirement from Wesleyan, Kay renewed her
ties to the First Church of Christ, Middletown, which she had joined in the
1950s. Kay taught Sunday School until she was in her 90s, and after the
Vietnam War, she tutored children from Vietnam and Cambodia through the
church.
In the mid 1990s, she wrote a series of essays for the Middletown Press on
backyard bird-watching, on her particular pleasure in crows, on Elderhostels,
on her two hip replacements, and on her decision at the age of 94 to leave
her beloved Randolph Road home and move to One MacDonough Place, where she
now resides.
Another great love of Kay’s throughout her life has been music, and
particularly singing. She had a huge repertoire - everything from Vaudeville
to Negro Spirituals. Kay still loves singing - now with the One MacDonough
Singers.
In honor of her 100 years, the Governor’s Office proclaimed July 27 as Kay
Butterfield Day in the State of Connecticut, and the Mayor's Office declared
July 27 as Kay Butterfield Day in the City of Middletown. |
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| Photos by Olivia Bartlett, Wesleyan
Connection editor. Text contributed. |
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