Meet Your Neighbor
Ed Butner
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER

PHOTO BY JAKE LANCASTER

Date of birth:

Nov. 13, 1923

Likes most about Nantucket: "I enjoy doing nothing and this place is laid back."

Likes least about Nantucket:

"I'm not too much into the politics here. I think they could change their form of town government. I think Town Meeting had its place, but it's different now."

Favorite TV show:

"Wheel of Fortune" and the "Weather Channel." "That's the senior citizens' 'MTV.'"

Ed Butner has made many accomplishments in his life, but a good golf game is not among them.

"Nothing has improved as far as the golf is concerned," said the 84-yearold Butner. "I've given up figuring I'm going to go on tours with the pros - even with the amateurs I'm not going to go anywhere. I've got this propensity for sand."

Born and raised in Westport, Conn., Butner joined the U.S. Army Eighth Air Force after high school graduation in 1941 and was stationed in Florida, Texas, South Dakota and England. During WWII, when the B-17 in which he was a radio operator became filled with gunshot holes and started going down, he stayed with the radio giving the British his location. The plane crashed into the North Sea off the Belgium coast, but all crew members escaped alive and were picked up by the British Air/Sea Rescue division.

"Just before the Germans got there," he said.

In 1944, for his steadfast dedication to his duty, Butner was given the Distinguished Flying Cross medal. His stint ended in 1945, and after returning to his home state, he enrolled at the University of Connecticut the following year to study engineering and business administration. He had enlisted in the Marine Reserves in 1945, and in 1950 he was called to active duty, serving at El Toro, Calif. Butner was in the aviation wing in charge of the armament section, which maintained Marine machine guns and loaded rockets.

He met his wife of 56 years, Edna, on a blind date in Long Beach, Calif., and the couple wed in October 1951, about a month before Butner's Marine duty ended. They moved to Westport, Conn. and Butner finished his degree in engineering at night school while working for seven years at the Norfolk Company, which manufactured compressors. From 1952 through 1960, the Butners had two daughters and a son. His next job was at Nash Engineering where he was a sales engineer until he retired in 1986.

"I can't believe it's been 22 years," he said. "I really retired. The most I did was take up space."

The Butners visited and fell in love with Nantucket in 1975, when they bought land in Madaket. In 1979 they built the home they still live in. Ed Butner opened scallops for one year after the pair settled down here and in 1987 worked "part-time" at Madaket Marine.

"The first week I worked 44 hours part-time," he recalled, saying that was when he went into official retirement and began spending his time doing only what he wanted to do.

He does play a lot of golf, regardless of his skill level. The couple also has traveled, spending winters in Florida and Hawaii and visiting Great Britain. He is an avid reader and spends a good deal of time tending his yard. He still enjoys traveling and would like to see Europe, and particularly looks forward to visits with his children and four grandchildren who stay with the Butners each summer.

"I enjoy just living, that's all," he said. I