Butler, Smedley D., Jr.: May 1983

Smedley D. Butler Jr., 74, a retired engineering consultant, died Wednesday night at Albemarle Hospital in Elizabeth City, N.C. A former resident of Devon, he lived in Kitty Hawk, N.C.

 

Mr. Butler, the eldest son of the late Maj. Gen. Smedley D. Butler, the iron-fisted Marine Corps commandant and Philadelphia safety director whose performance earned him the title "Fighting Quaker," earned a degree in civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, worked in the field and fought in World War II.

 

Following his father's lead, he joined the Marine Corps, but unlike Gen. Butler, he took to the air. He was a pilot and held the rank of captain.

 

After the war, he joined A. Ernest D'Ambly Inc., the city's oldest and largest consulting engineering firm. Working with D'Ambly, he helped build Philadelphia International Airport and had a role in building the building at 30th and Market Street that once housed the Evening Bulletin.

 

He was active in Delta Psi fraternity and the St. Anthony Club of Philadelphia.

 

Surviving are his wife, Emma Jane Hodgson Butler; son, Smedley 3d; daughter, Molly Conway Swanton; three grandchildren and a brother, Thomas R. Butler, a West Chester lawyer.

 

Services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Thomas R. Butler home in Newtown Square. Burial will be in Oakland Cemetery, West Chester.1