Jeffrey J. Butler

Jeffrey J. Butler, Okemos, Michigan, passed away Friday evening at his home surrounded by his family and friends after a valiant battle with ocular melanoma. His wife of 30 years is the former Rebecca Frick.

Born Jan. 13, 1966, in Scranton, he was the son of the late Bruce E. and Mary Gene McDade Butler. Jeff was educated in Scranton schools and began his college education at St. Vincent's College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. At the end of his first year, he and the college mutually agreed that he should continue his education elsewhere. He returned home and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1987 from the University of Scranton. He took a "gap year" to travel and then enrolled in Western Michigan University, Cooley Law School. He earned his Juris Doctor in 1991.

After clerking for the chief judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals, Jeff spent nearly a decade with the Michigan Department of Attorney General, representing the Michigan Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and other Michigan agencies and government officials in all aspects of education law.

Thereafter he joined the law firm of LaPointe and Associates P.C., in Okemos, Michigan, where he specialized in school disability and special education law. He eventually became the principal owner of the firm, LaPointe and Butler P.C. In 2017, Jeff joined Clark Hill. In July 2020, he began the Butler Law Group P.C., where he continued to practice in the area of school disability, special education law and civil rights matters, primarily devoting his practice to the representation of Michigan schools. Jeff recently joined Thrun Law Firm to ensure the continuity of services to the clients he represented for the past 18 years.

Jeff recently served as an adjunct professor at Grand Valley State University in the MA Education Leadership Program, where he taught special education law. Over the years, he also served as a visiting professor for Saginaw Valley State University, Northern Michigan University, Michigan State University and Western Michigan University.

Jeff has also served on boards for various charitable organizations, including Lansing Area Homeless Shelters and Special Olympics of Michigan.

Among his many accomplishments was his joint venture to recover, restore and return the famous lost "Betty Boards" concert recordings, holding the reputation of being some of the best live recordings in the genre, to their rightful owners - Betty Cantor-Jackson, the Grateful Dead and Warner Music Group - and, eventually, the masses. Jeff and others created the ABCD LLC to embark upon and complete this mission. The members of ABCD estimate that more 1,500 hours were spent getting the recordings back into the hands of the rightful owners. Their time included researching, traveling to gain possession of the recordings, and having each tape professionally restored and digitized. In 2016, the recordings were returned to the Grateful Dead Vault. Since then, there have been numerous Grateful Dead releases using recordings provided by ABCD. Each release credits and thanks ABCD for its assistance in providing the recordings.

Surviving are Jeff's beloved children, Brittany, Jeffrey Jr. and Sydney; siblings, Ann Reese and husband, Brian; Bruce Butler and wife, Gina; Erin Butler Conner and husband, Christopher; Mary Gene Eagen and husband, Todd; Brian J. Butler and wife, Emily; nieces and nephews; aunt, Ann Dwyer; and numerous cousins. Also surviving are brothers-in-law, Robert Frick and wife, Joni; and Bruce Frick.

Due to the current health crisis, all attending are respectively asked to wear masks.

All attending the Mass are asked to go directly to the church.

The funeral will be Saturday with Mass of Christian Burial to be celebrated at 10 a.m. in St. Paul's Church, 1510 Penn Ave., Scranton.

Relatives and friends may call on Friday, 4 to 7 p.m., at Vanston and James Funeral Home, 1401 Ash St., Scranton.

Jeff's funeral Mass will be livestreamed and may be viewed on the funeral home's Facebook page.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Special Olympics at specialolympics.org in memory of Jeff. Interment, private at the convenience of the family.

For directions, to share a memory or to leave your condolences for the family, please visit www.vanstonandjames.com.