Richard LeRoy "Dick" Butz

Richard LeRoy Butz, 95, passed away peacefully on May 21, 2024 at the V.A. Medical Center in Cheyenne, Wyoming following a good, long life.

On December 16, 1928 in Ft. Collins, Colorado, Richard entered the world as the firstborn child of Benjamin and Frieda (née Getz) Butz, and over the next 16 years starting in 1931, he became the big brother to his siblings Dorothy, Kenny, Margie and Sandy.

Ben and Frieda’s growing family relocated to Denver and eventually Brighton by 1936, and Richard was both graduated from Zion Lutheran School (please note the “graduation”-related grammar; our dad was a stickler about this phrase!) and became a confirmed member of Zion Lutheran Church in 1942. He remained an active and loyal member of Zion for the rest of his life; in fact, Richard celebrated his final Easter morning there on March 31, 2024.

Richard then WAS GRADUATED from Brighton High School in 1946, and shortly thereafter, proudly enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces , eventually joining the Army of Occupation in Hokkaido, Japan as a paratrooper in the 152nd Anti-Aircraft Battalion, 11th Airborne Division. Though he strongly considered immediate re-enlistment after his tour of duty, Richard ultimately opted to pursue a college education under the GI Bill, and earned his finance degree from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1952—thus inspiring a long line of future Buffs throughout the Butz family; several who also became CU graduates, and ALL who became long-suffering football fans, often echoing his famous season-ending declaration of, “well, just wait’ll next year!” He held season tickets at Folsom Field until well into his 70s, and was glued to either the television or KOA 850 for every game thereafter.

After CU, Richard embarked on his insurance career by joining USF&G’s Denver office as an underwriter. At the age of 25, he met Betty Hull, a recent Denver transplant from Iowa. Richard and Betty married just a few months before Richard was transferred to Roswell, NM as a field rep, and the couple’s first child (Janet) was born four years later. Soon after, Richard was sent to open USF&G’s newest office in Albuquerque, where the family welcomed another daughter, Lori.

Eager to return to Colorado, Richard and Betty eventually seized the opportunity for Richard to purchase a local insurance agency in Brighton, which became the RB Agency. That same year, Richard became a co-founder of the Adams County Insurors’ Association and served as its first president, and Betty gave birth to their third daughter, Susan. Five years later, after seven granddaughters in a row, Richard and Betty finally presented Ben and Frieda with their first grandson! Just kidding; they had yet another daughter (Sara), and the granddaughter streak continued.

Beginning in 1980, Richard and Betty, by then long-divorced but re-established as friends, repeatedly showed both delight and absolutely zero surprise when the first four of their grandchildren also turned out to be girls. Eight grandchildren ultimately arrived before Betty died in 1993; Richard was blessed with two more over the next two years, and all have been and will continue to be cherished by both, even in the afterlife.

Richard continued to grow the RB Agency over a 26-year period; first through clever ad campaigns such as buying ad space before movies shown at the then-Brighton Twin Theater or by publishing his young daughters’ purely objective, handwritten testimonies touting him as the best insurer in the entire world, and always through relentless and honest hard work and customer service. Richard sold his agency in 1988, and “officially” retired by 1995, but never stopped providing free advice and guidance to anyone who asked for it.

Throughout and after his career, Richard supported his church and his community by volunteering regularly around town, showing up for multiple one-off endeavors as well longer-term stints—serving as a driver/EMT for the Platte Valley Ambulance in his 40s and into his 50s, mowing Zion’s lawn into his mid-80s, and delivering for Meals on Wheels until well into his 90s.

Beyond his business skills and volunteerism, Richard was also a talented (though renowned only to his family) songwriter; he possessed a natural affinity and joy for composing alternative lyrics to popular songs, whether to help his oldest daughters remember their home address as toddlers, or making all of his daughters laugh…which served as a brilliant entertainment strategy during long road trip vacations throughout the western U.S. These songs, like dad himself, will never be forgotten.

In addition to the activities and people above, other things that Richard loved (in no particular order) include: performances by The Kingston Trio and the Chad Mitchell Trio, Santiago’s breakfast burritos, Gunsmoke¸ getting the goat of his liberal relatives, a good chianti or Bloody Mary on a rare occasion, reading historical accounts of WWII, the Civil War, or the Volga River Germans, Saturday morning catch-ups with his fellow old fogeys at McDonald’s, driving under the speed limit and NEVER with less than a quarter tank of gas in the car, vanilla ice cream, complaining about email spam while simultaneously responding to all of it, the memory of his mother’s fried chicken, pretending to not like his daughters’ dogs but always having treats for them in his house, and a long, long list of family and friends not already mentioned above—most of whom had already left this world and are surely as elated to be with him again as we have been devastated to let him go.

Richard is survived and mourned by his youngest sister Sandy, his four daughters and three sons-in-law (Janet and Michael Neil, Lori and Hubert Maier, Jr., Susan and Glen Rayder, and Sara), eight grandchildren, one great-grandson, eight nieces and nephews, and about a gazillion other Getz and Butz family members by both blood and marriage.  

A memorial service for Richard will be held Saturday, June 15 at 11:00am at Zion Lutheran Church in Brighton, with inurnment/military honors held at Ft. Logan National Cemetery in Denver on Monday, June 17 at 1:00pm. In lieu of flowers, our dad would certainly prefer that worthy charities are the recipients of any memorial gifts. Some of his own favorites included Zion Lutheran Church & School, Lutheran Indian Ministries, and Quilts of Valor Foundation/Piecing Patriots branch.