Developer Butler dies at 89

The man known to many as the architect of the Gainesville area’s retail appearance, S. Clark Butler, died Friday evening at his home at the age of 89.

Butler was president of Butler Enterprises, a Gainesville-based land-development and property-management company. Butler and his family built Westmoreland Estates, Palm View Estates, Westwood and Sunnybrook. They also developed the Millhopper Shopping Center on NW 23rd Avenue and 43rd Street.

Butler is best known as the developer of the mile-long, retail shopping district on SW Archer Road known as Butler Plaza, which has grown to 1.2 million square feet, making it one of the largest retail centers in the region.

Butler’s daughter Deborah, who served as vice president and general manager of Butler Enterprises for many years, said her father’s civic activities were also instrumental in shaping the region.

Butler was elected to the Gainesville City Commission at age 31 and also served as mayor as well as chairman of one of the city’s first community banks. Deborah Butler said that during her father’s tenure as mayor, he oversaw the opening of the first airport terminal, the previous downtown library and was the swing vote opposing a plan for the city to sell GRU to another utility company for $5 million.

Butler’s friends were sometimes in awe of his abilities.

“Clark (Butler) was kind of a walking history of the economic growth and political evolution of the Gainesville area,” said Rod Smith, the former state attorney and state senator who is now an attorney in private practice in Gainesville. “He could tell you as much in a single meeting as you could find out from other sources in days or months.”

Smith said Butler “watched and understood as well as anybody how the University of Florida evolved into the economic engine it became for this community.”

Over the years, Smith said he and Butler had their differences, but those differences did not affect their friendship.

“While we didn’t always agree, Clark Butler was always somebody whose opinion and vision I gave great weight to,” Smith said. “Even when I might not agree, I still immensely respected him.”

Butler was raised on a farm in Tampa and came to Gainesville in 1939 at age 19 with his brother and father. The family brought along $300 for the move near the end of the Great Depression, using the money to open a small fruit stand.

Early on, Butler was concerned about whether he would make it.

“The fright was that if I failed, I would have to go back to the farm,” Butler once told The Sun. “I didn’t want to be a farmer.”

The Butler Market fruit and produce stand was near downtown on NW 8th Avenue. Work began at 2 a.m. when Butler and his brother Bill would go to Jacksonville to get farm-fresh fruits and vegetables.

“It looked like the garden of Eden,” Butler said. “A lady could sit in her car and just point out what she wanted.”

By the mid-1940s, the open-air market was transformed into the 15,000-square-foot Butler Supermarket. In 1953 it burned to the ground.

Unable to get a loan to rebuild, the Butler brothers turned to development. They built Westmoreland Estates, Palm View Estates, Westwood and Sunnybrook. They also developed the Millhopper Shopping Center on NW 23rd Avenue and 43rd Street.

In the 1960s, the land on Archer Road and SW 34th Street was a grass airport with plenty of potential as a shopping area because of its proximity to the University of Florida.

Butler bought 235 acres for $850,000, starting a small shopping center that would grow to one of the largest retail centers in the region.

The University of Florida was often among the recipients of Butler’s generosity.

In 2005, nine years after being diagnosed with and treated for prostate cancer at Shands at the University of Florida, Butler and his daughter Deborah donated $1 million to spearhead the drive to build a new cancer hospital, which is expected to open in 2009.

Butler’s philanthropy extended to county and city programs to care for the homeless. Among his recent donations are some that are being used to create a park in southeast Gainesville that will bear his name and the name of Alachua County Commissioner Cynthia Moore Chestnut. A new county park on SE 35th Street will be formally named Cynthia Moore Chestnut Park and Clark Butler Nature Preserve early next year, Chestnut said.

Chestnut met Butler through her in-laws and came to appreciate several of his characteristics. Chestnut said the best advice she ever got from Butler was to “never give up on something you believe in.”

“He was so tenacious and so focused,” Chestnut said. “He was a man who did so much good for this community through his philanthropy — truly a friend to east Gainesville.”

“I am so pleased he was aware that this (park) project would bear his name because he wanted to provide an opportunity for youngsters to develop themselves,” Chestnut said. “By providing funds and helping to develop this, it will provide after school recreation for young people and a recreational outlet for their parents.”

Butler is survived by his wife of 65 years, Mary Catherine Butler; daughters Catherine Ann Butler of Los Angeles and Deborah Jean Butler of Gainesville; brother Robert Butler; as well as other relatives and friends.

Information on a memorial service is forthcoming.