Board and Staff
Scott Butler, President
Scott and his wife, Gayle, retired to Greenville in 2016 after spending most of their professional careers in Des Moines, Iowa, with stints in Washington, DC and Charlotte, NC. Scott had a multi-faceted career in investigative oversight/intelligence analysis, administrative management, accounting and auditing, project management, franchise operations and sales, and employee benefits sales/administration/automation. His volunteer background has included leadership and advisory roles in the credit union movement, financial consulting in inner-city outreach, and board memberships on several professional organizations and industry groups. In addition to serving on FoRR’s Board since 2018, he is treasurer for his homeowners’ association.
Q&A with Scott
Featured in the December 2023 Reedy Recap Board Member Highlight
Q: What is your favorite outdoor activity?
A: Just being outdoors. Beyond that, the activity can be anything – walking, bicycling, hiking, playing games, tending the 200+ shrubs, trees, and perennials in my yard. You name it. (As long as it doesn’t involve mowing or caring for turf grass!)
Q: What is the best piece of advice for taking care of the Reedy River?
A: Maybe not the best, but the SIMPLEST piece of advice is, if you’re on the Swamp Rabbit Trail and you see trash or junk, either pick it up and get it to the nearest trash bin or report it to us so we can get it picked up. If it’s left along the trail, it’ll end up in the Reedy.
Q: What is the most fun part-time job you've ever had?
A: During college, I was a summer engineering aide with the Nebraska Department of Roads. Most of the work was spent surveying open country in the Nebraska Sandhills (an area larger than Vermont and New Hampshire combined). Our task was to locate and document the accuracy century-old (usually buried) stone benchmarks using a 100-foot steel measuring chain. Yep, 528 measurements between each set of benchmarks, for eight hours a day. Being outdoors in Nebraska’s Sandhills (almost literally the middle of nowhere) in the hot prairie summer sun with no other living critters except cattle and meadowlarks, we’d strip down to our skivvies and boots, and get to work. Best job ever.
Q: What's your idea of a perfect day in Greenville?
A: We live near to downtown, between Cleveland Park and Falls Park. So, a perfect day for me is walking along Main Street with stops at M. Judson Booksellers and Papi’s Tacos. A stroll through Camperdown Plaza and across the Liberty Bridge.
Q: What's your favorite place on the Reedy?
A: This may sound crazy, but my favorite place on the Reedy is Cancer Survivors Park, standing on the bridge that overlooks the pool below the rapids. CSP was such a perfect way to connect Cleveland and Falls Parks.
Q: What are you most passionate about impacting in the Reedy River Watershed?
A: I would love to see the day when people throughout the watershed no longer have the attitude that this little river is their personal dumping ground. I know not everybody has this attitude, but there are enough folks who do, that twice a year we pull 4,000 pounds of trash out of about a two-mile stretch.