By Staff
CASSOPOLIS – Rev. Vern W. "Pat" Butler, 82, of Shavehead Lake, Cassopolis, died Wednesday, July 9, 2008, in Doctors Lake Health Care, Orange Park, Fla., after an extended illness.
A funeral service will take place Monday, July 14, at 11 a.m. at United Presbyterian Church, Cassopolis. Officiating will be the Rev. Allan Widerquist, retired pastor, and the Rev. Stephen Kazar, pastor of the church.
Interment will be in Plum Grove Cemetery, Union, where military honors will be rendered by members of William E. Lozier VFW Post 1070 and of Efton James American Legion Post 206, both of Cassopolis.
Friends may call at Connelly Funeral Home in Cassopolis on Sunday from 6 to 8 p.m.
He was born in Chicago, Ill., May 27, 1926, to the Rev. Dr. Vernon Butler and Ruth (Hulse) Butler and moved to the Cassopolis area permanently in 1991 after vacationing here for many years.
He married the former Marguerite Ellis on Jan. 29, 1947, in Fort Edward, N.Y.
His wife survives, along with two children, Ellis (Sheryl) Butler of Cassopolis and Dr. M. Kathleen Ebener of Orange Park, Fla.; three grandchildren, Dr. Robert (Laura) Ebener, Emily (Will) Pryor and Steven Butler and four great-grandchildren.
The Rev. Butler was a member of the Wabash Presbytery of Indiana.
He was a graduate of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and received his doctorate degree from McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago.
He served congregations as pastor in Universal, Pa., Park Forest, Ill., Monmouth, Ill., and Hamburg, N.Y., and had served as interim pastor for churches in Elkhart, Ind., Niles and, most recently, in 1997 for Westminster Presbyterian Church, South Bend, Ind.
The Rev. Butler served his country as a submariner during World War II in the Pacific Theater.
Memorials in Rev. Butler's name may be made to the United Presbyterian Church, Cassopolis.
Connelly Funeral Home in Cassopolis made arrangements.