Assistant Chief Scout Executive—Council Operations
Gary P. Butler
Gary Butler became assistant Chief Scout Executive for Council Operations, Boy Scouts of America, on Oct. 1, 2009. Prior to assuming his current role, he had served as director of the Council Solutions Group since August 2008.
As assistant Chief Scout Executive for Council Operations, Gary manages the overall delivery of the Scouting programs through six departments and four regions. All national support and oversight of the nearly 300 local Scout councils are coordinated and directed through the office of the assistant Chief Scout Executive for Council Operations.
Gary grew up in Rhode Island, earning the Eagle Scout Award and Vigil Honor. He served on Scout camp staff for nine years, including the role of camp director. He also served as Order of the Arrow lodge chief for two terms. He has volunteered as a Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, and Venturing Committee chairman and is a Wood Badge four-beader.
A graduate of Providence College, he began his professional Scouting career in 1980 as a district executive with the Suffolk County Council, Long Island, New York. He subsequently served as a senior district executive and finance director with the Theodore Roosevelt Council, also on Long Island, New York. In 1989, he joined the staff of the Passaic Valley Council in New Jersey as a field director.
In 1992, Gary began serving as a Scout executive in three councils starting with the Rip Van Winkle Council, Kingston, New York, followed by the Penn’s Woods Council, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1997, and later as the Scout executive of the Greater Niagara Frontier Council in Buffalo, New York, in 2001.
In 2005, he joined the National Council staff as director of the Finance Support Division. During his tenure with the National Council, Gary has visited more than 100 financially challenged councils, facilitating with council leadership the development of strategies for improving their financial and operational health.
Gary is married and has three children and two grandchildren.
About the Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America provides the nation's foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training, which helps young people be "Prepared. For Life.™" The Scouting organization is composed of 2.7 million youth members between the ages of 7 and 21 and more than a million volunteers in local councils throughout the United States and its territories.