Farm School founder and early campus administrator dies
Farm School founder and early campus administrator dies
- December 8, 2016
- Michael D. Butler, social sciences professor emeritus, was also dean emeritus of undergraduate studies and a founding director of the UCI Farm School
Michael Butler, social sciences professor emeritus and dean emeritus of undergraduate studies at UCI, passed away Sunday, November 27, 2016, of complications of Parkinson’s Disease. He was 81.
Butler, who had been a junior fellow in the prestigious Harvard University Society of Fellows, joined the UCI faculty in 1968. He would spend his entire academic career at the Irvine campus, serving as both a professor and an administrator in several key roles.
His research interests were in behavioral sciences: he focused on how people learn and how they could learn better, particularly when dealing with mathematical concepts. These weren’t just topics of study. He put his insights into practice in the university courses he taught, and he sought to change the way children learn when he co-founded the Farm School in 1969. The non-traditional ungraded school for children ages 5-12 was based on the conviction that, in Butler’s own words, “children should learn to do what finders and makers do, not just master—more or less badly and mechanically—some scattered things they have worked out.” It was equally important to him that learners come to take delight in the doing of mathematics, history, and other disciplines, as practitioners of those disciplines do. Butler served as the school’s director for 30 years.
Butler was promoted to associate professor of social science in 1975. In 1982, he was appointed associate dean of undergraduate studies in the School of Social Sciences. One of his accomplishments in this role was the creation of what would become the Summer Academic Enrichment Program, a research-intensive undergraduate training program for first-generation university students that is still operating with success today.
In 1989, he was tapped by then-Chancellor Jack Peltason to serve as the acting dean of undergraduate studies for the campus. Appointed as dean the following year, Butler worked in this role until his retirement from UCI in 1994. Among his initiatives were the International Opportunities Program (now a component of the UCI Study Abroad Center) and the Undergraduate/Undeclared Advising Program. After his retirement, he continued to serve as director of the Farm School and teach for the program in social networks and psychology until 2000.
Throughout his career at UCI, Butler’s efforts earned him campuswide recognition. In 1972, he received the Lauds & Laurels Distinguished Teaching Award, and in 1986, he was the recipient of the Lauds & Laurels University Service Award. One year after his official retirement, he was named the campus recipient of the Daniel G. Aldrich, Jr. Distinguished University Service Award (1995).
Michael Butler is survived by his wife, Jolayne Service.
A Memorial Celebration is scheduled for May 12, 2017, 3:00-5:00 p.m. in Social Science Plaza B, Room 1208/1222. Please RSVP to Peyton Wolonsky, p.wolonsky@uci.edu or 949-824-2766.
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