William Butchko

1946 - 2020

"Ride boldly, lad, and never fear the spills." From AB Paterson's "A Man from Snowy River"

Bill Butchko, 74, died on December 20 in his home in Redwood City, California, with his wife, Mary, at his side. Bill was born in Bayonne, New Jersey to Henry and Dorothy Butchko, and had three younger sisters: Carol, Kathy, and Christine.

After graduating from high school, Bill attended Rutgers University and graduated with a BS in Environmental Science. While at Rutgers, Bill competed in Track and Field where he held a record in the Javelin and was selected to receive the prestigious McManus Memorial award for excellence and competitiveness.

Because of his exceptional swimming and lifeguarding skills, he was selected to serve as a head lifeguard at Silver Beach on the Jersey Shore. He maintained these skills and, while vacationing in Lavalette, NJ decades later, he rescued a young girl swept out to sea that no one else could reach.

Bill served honorably in the United States Air Force after graduating from Rutgers and went on to earn two Masters degrees from Ball State and the University of Southern California.

He then started his career in sales and marketing and was rapidly promoted through General Foods as they moved him from Denver, where he met his wife, Mary, to Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Madison, and finally the Bay Area. After that, he worked as an executive for Del Monte and Le Boulanger. He worked in sales and marketing most of his life, and he valued the relationships he built with his clients selling them products he truly believed in.

However, Bill was most naturally and most passionately a teacher. He helped coach his son's baseball teams and daughter's volleyball teams; quizzed his kids on their multiplication tables; discussed his favorite books; and for a time worked as a substitute teacher at Ralston Middle School and taught 8th grade at Notre Dame Elementary. He never stopped teaching his children and grandchildren to "be well" and to "do good." He led by example volunteering at the local jails through St. Mark's Parish and with St. Vincent de Paul. He worked out daily at the Bay Club until he got sick.

Bill was a force of positivity. He always greeted his neighbors with a beaming smile and booming "hello," and never had a bad word to say about anyone. He will be tremendously missed by his wife of almost 45 years, Mary, a retired nurse; his son, William Paul Butchko, who is a teacher at Yerba Buena High School; his daughter, Kathryn Axsom, who is a nurse practitioner; and his grandchildren, William Trajan Butchko, Madelyn Butchko, and Theodore Rex Axsom.

There will not be a memorial service due to Covid, but the family invites those who knew Bill to share memories at https://www.forevermissed.com/bill-butchko/about