Allan “Al” C. Buttler, who died at age 76 on April 19, owned and operated the Buttler Painting Co., contracting with ski resorts, airports and other businesses, and spent 16 years coaching a string of successful Boulder Little League teams.
After enlisting in the Navy for a year-long stint, he enrolled at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and then went into business estimating the cost of commercial painting jobs. His company subcontracted with dozens of Denver construction businesses.
More businessman than handyman, he limited his participation to calculating expenses and checking in on his crews to make sure clients were getting their money’s worth.
“I remember that my mother fell off a ladder, painting my brother’s room once, and that we always had to paint the outside of our house,” said daughter Lynn Lawton, of Newberg, Ore.
“I don’t think Dad ever actually held a paintbrush in his life.”
Buttler was more at home with baseball bats. He began coaching the Black Hat and All Star teams in Boulder’s Thunderbird Little League program years before his own son was born, and established a reputation as one of Boulder’s most successful Little League coaches.
His teams rarely lost a game. Every year, parents and Little League players wrangled for a spot on Buttler’s team. Buttler’s All-Star team games drew huge crowds.
While Buttler reveled in coaching other parents’ children, he looked forward to the year that his own son, Marc, would be old enough to play on his team.
Marc proved to be the sort of Little Leaguer more at home in right field than on the pitcher’s mound. He tended to daydream through games.
He was gazing at the Boulder foothills when a ball squarely beaned him, ending Marc’s interest in Little League along with his father’s dreams of coaching his son on to a major-league baseball career.
When it wasn’t Little League season, the Buttlers spent their weekends at Big Elk Meadows, a bucolic community between Lyons and Estes Park. With the help of friends, they built an A-frame cabin. Adults spent their days at the tennis courts, while the children played in the community swimming pool or nearby lake.
On many Sunday mornings, the Buttlers and their friends held Buttler Breakfast Club meetings. Men started campfires to cook pancakes, sausage, eggs and bacon to go with the bloody marys favored by the club’s adult members.
A memorial will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the Chautauqua Community House, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder.
Besides his daughter and his son, of Estes Park, survivors include sister Gail Englund of Allentown, Pa.; brother Larry Buttler of Pittsford, N.Y.; and three grandchildren. The family suggests donations to South Boulder Little League, c/o Laura Barton, 5676 Pennsylvania Place, Boulder, CO 80303.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
