Donald Butterfield

1937 - 2023

Butterfield, Donald
December 20, 1937 - September 9, 2023
Doctor

Donald Gene Butterfield, 85, of Aspen Glen, Colorado, passed away Saturday, September 9, 2023.

Born in Bloomfield, Iowa, on December 20, 1937, Don was raised in Central City, Iowa. In high school he was an Eagle Scout, a gifted athlete in both baseball and basketball, and the valedictorian of his class in 1956.

Don received a B.A. in Biology at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, in 1960, and graduated from the School of Medicine at the State University of Iowa in 1963. Following his medical internship at Philadelphia General Hospital, he served as a Captain in the United States Air Force from 1964-1966 at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma.

He entered private practice as a gastroenterologist in Denver after completing his residency at the University of Colorado Medical Center in 1970. Widely remembered as a reassuring and affable doctor, he was affiliated with Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center until his retirement in 1999, serving terms as Chief of Medicine (1977-79), Chief of Staff (1981-84), and President of the Consolidated Medical Board (1985), and was a founding member of the Colorado Trust, on which he served as Chairman from 1995-1997.

Don was married to Beverly Bebe Butters of Central City, Iowa, on June 12, 1960. They had three children together: Bradley, Andrew, and Matthew. Bebe died of pancreatic cancer in 1974. In 1975, Don married Cynthia Strickland Manning, mother of Geoffrey and Meredith. Don and Cindy raised their five children together in Denver, where they lived until their retirement to Aspen Glen, CO, in 1999.

He will be sorely missed as a loving husband, father, grandfather of five, mentor and friend to so many who had the privilege of knowing him.