[4] Two years after graduating from Harvard, Butcher became Central State Normal School's sixth president in Edmond, Oklahoma, and served until 1908.

[6] In 1909 after a year in Germany, Butcher served as a superintendent in Enid, Oklahoma, from 1909 to 1913, and was later named Kansas State Normal's president in 1913.

[7] In 1914, Butcher started a work study program, which would give students on-campus jobs to help them attend school.

[13] Butcher retired on June 30, 1943, as the longest serving president in the history of Emporia State University.

Butcher Education Center, which houses the Sociology, Anthropology, and Crime and Delinquencies department, is named after him.