Harry Cecil Butcher (November 1, 1901 – April 20, 1985) was an American

radio broadcaster Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-b ...

who served during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

as the Naval Aide to General

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

from 1942 to 1945.

Early life

Harry C. Butcher was born in Springville,

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

on November 1, 1901. Following his graduation from

Iowa State College Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

, in 1929 Butcher began a career in

radio broadcasting Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

. He opened the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

office of

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

and served as its director until 1932. Beginning in 1932, he was the manager, and later vice-president, of the

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. ...

's station in

station WJSV. While there, Butcher coined a term for President Franklin Roosevelt's radio speeches to the American public, used by Robert Trout introducing the president's address on March 12, 1933, and again by Butcher written in a press release, referring to the May 7, 1933 address as a " fireside chat".

Military career

During his tenure at WJSV, Butcher was commissioned a

Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...

in the

United States Navy Reserve The United States Navy Reserve (USNR), known as the United States Naval Reserve from 1915 to 2005, is the Reserve Component (RC) of the United States Navy. Members of the Navy Reserve, called Reservists, are categorized as being in either the Se ...

(U.S.N.R.) on September 16, 1939. From 1942 to 1945, Butcher served as the Naval Aide to General Dwight D. Eisenhower. On May 1, 1943, Butcher was promoted to the rank of commander in the U.S.N.R. On November 1, 1944 he was promoted to the temporary rank of captain. Following an order given to him by Eisenhower, Butcher kept a diary of his and Eisenhower's wartime activities. The diary would come to be published in 1946 under the title "My Three Years with Eisenhower." It also led to historian

Max Hastings Sir Max Hugh Macdonald Hastings (; born 28 December 1945) is a British journalist and military historian, who has worked as a foreign correspondent for the BBC, editor-in-chief of ''The Daily Telegraph'', and editor of the ''Evening Standard'' ...

referring to him as "the embodiment of all gossip-ridden staff officers". It was Butcher who preserved the written statement that Eisenhower had prepared in the event that the D-Day invasions failed.

Later life

Butcher returned to the broadcasting world following the end of WWII. From 1946 to the 1970s, Butcher owned the radio station

KIST Kist or KIST may refer to: Abbreviations * Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, a former university in Kigali, Rwanda, now part of the new University of Rwanda * K. International School in Tokyo, Japan *Konark Institute of Science and Tech ...

Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara ( es, Santa Bárbara, meaning "Saint Barbara") is a coastal city in Santa Barbara County, California, of which it is also the county seat. Situated on a south-facing section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Co ...

. He also served as president of Santa Barbara's cable TV corporation and as a radio/television consultant. On April 20, 1985, Butcher died in

, United States.

References

External links

Papers of Harry C. Butcher

Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home is the Presidential library system, presidential library and museum of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Dwight David Eisenhower, the List of presidents of the United States, 34th presi ...

Inventory of the Harry C. Butcher papers, 1930–1977 (Bulk 1930–1956)Rocky Mountain Online Archive

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

(2013) {{DEFAULTSORT:Butcher, Harry C. 1901 births 1985 deaths People from Linn County, Iowa Iowa State University alumni Radio personalities from Iowa American businesspeople in mass media Military personnel from Iowa 20th-century American naval officers United States Navy personnel of World War II American diarists Dwight D. Eisenhower People from Santa Barbara, California 20th-century diarists