Steve Buttry
Oct. 24, 1954-Feb. 19, 2017
Steve Buttry, a journal-
ist for more than 45 years,
died February 19 at age 62
of pancreatic cancer. But-
try spent most of his
career as a reporter and
editor, but achieved some
prominence late in his career as a newsroom trainer, then as an advocate for digital journalism and media innovation and finally for blogging openly about his cancer treatment.
Buttry was born at
Sampson Air Force Base,
N.Y., on Oct. 24, 1954, the
second son of Air Force
Chaplain Luke Buttry and
his wife, Harriet. For the
next 16 years, the Buttry
family lived on or near
Air Force bases in Florida,
England, Utah, Japan and
Ohio. As a high school
freshman in 1968, Buttry
started carrying the
Columbus (Ohio)
Citizen-Journal, waking
an hour before he needed
to start riding his route, so
he could read the newspa-
per first, imagining the
day he would be the jour-
nalist writing such stories.
After moving to Shenan-
doah, Iowa, when his fa-
ther retired from the Air
Force, Buttry started his
journalism career the
summer before his senior
year of high school, cover-
ing sports for the Evening
Sentinel in Shenandoah.
Buttry graduated from
Texas Christian Universi-
ty in 1976. He then began
a journalism career that
took him to the Des
Moines Register, Kansas
City Star and Times,
Minot Daily News, Omaha
World Herald, American
Press Institute, Cedar Ra-
pids Gazette, TBD.com
and Digital First Media.
He also taught journalism,
as an adjunct at Central
College in Pella, Iowa;
Kirkwood Community
College in Cedar Rapids;
the University of Iowa;
Georgetown University
and American University
and full-time at Louisiana
State University.
He was Director of Stu-
dent Media at LSU’s Man-
ship School of Mass Com-
munication at his death.
Before starting the LSU
job, the Buttry sons and
their wives took Steve and
Mimi on an Alaska cruise
to celebrate their 40th
wedding anniversary in
August 2014. With the
cruise, Buttry had visited
all 50 states. Buttry was
named Editor of the Year
by Editor & Publisher
magazine in 2010 and that
year also was inducted
into the Hall of Excellence
at TCU’s Schieffer School
of Journalism. He was
honored for his contribu-
tions to journalism with
three major awards in his
final years: the Glamann
Award from the American
Copy Editors Society in
2015, the Rich Jaroslovsky
Founder Award from the
Online News Association
in 2016 and the
Chairman’s Citation from
the National Press Foun-
dation in 2017. He also
will be honored with the
creation of the Stephen
Buttry Scholarship at the
Manship School.
He is survived by: his
wife, Mimi Johnson But-
try; sons Mike, Joe and
Tom; daughters-in-law
Susie Burke, Kim Bagby
and Ashley Douglass;
granddaughters Julia
Burke Buttry and Made-
line Burke Buttry; mother,
Harriet Buttry of Lee’s
Summit, Mo.; brothers
Dan of Hamtramck, Mich.;
and Don of Shenandoah,
Iowa; sister, Carol Devlin;
and many in-laws, nieces
and nephews.
Services: A memorial
service will be held in the
coming weeks in Min-
neapolis. Details are
pending. The family re-
quests that memorial tri-
butes are directed to a
scholarship fund created
in Buttry’s honor at the
LSU Manship School of
Journalism: Details can be
found at
lsufoundation.org/buttryscholarship.
Checks can be sent to:
LSU Foundation, Attn:
Buttry Scholarship, 3796
Nicholson Dr. Baton
Rouge, LA 70802.