● Eagle Scout Award (1957)
Boy Scout’s Highest Award (41 Merit Badges)
● Silver Award (1958)
Explorer Scout’s Highest Award (equivalent to Eagle)
● Vigil Honor (1960)
Order of the Arrow, Scouting’s Honorary Camping, Highest Award
● State of Arizona Swim Champion (1960)
100-yard Freestyle, 200-yard Freestyle Relay
● El Capitan (Yosemite NP) Rescue Team, DOI Unit Award for Excellence of Service (1975)
September 23, 1972, Neal Olsen had his leg smashed by a falling boulder on the 27th pitch of El Capitan. A 2,600-foot lowering was engineered over a three-day rescue, the longest single-rope lowering on record. Secretary of the Interior Rogers C.B. Morton named twenty people for the Award.
● National Association for Search and Rescue NASAR State Award: California (1980)
Created in 1974, the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR) created this award for “significant contributions to search and rescue at the state or province level.”
● World Record (Unofficial) Single-Drop Rappel (1980)
On August 13, 1980, along with a dozen others, mostly vertical cavers, a world record of 2,649.5 feet rappelling down the face of Yosemite’s El Capitan, using a single rope. This exceeded any previous drop by over 1,000 feet and it was set on the world’s longest climbing rope, 4,600 feet.
● Grand Canyon Air Crash Incident Command, DOI Unit Award for Excellence of Service (1986)
June 18, 1986, a twin-engine, twenty-place sightseeing plane and a five-passenger sight-seeing helicopter, collided in mid-air over a remote part of the Grand Canyon National Park, killing all 25 people onboard. Secretary of the Interior Donald P. Hodel named 24 people to this Award.
● Harry Yount Lifetime Achievement Award (2000)
“Through his work, ‘Butch’ has epitomized the spirit of the National Park Ranger, has become known as a ‘Ranger’s Ranger,’ setting a brilliant example for those who have followed in his footsteps. For his undying loyalty, continued dedication, and constant enthusiasm toward the cause, ‘Butch’ is honored for his service to the National Park Service and America’s National Parks.”
● Mountain Rescue Association Honorary Lifetime Member (2001)
Received at the National MRA Conference at Snoqualamie Pass, near Seattle. He was the third recipient.
From the Mountain Rescue Association Bylaws: “The Board of Directors may confer honorary lifetime membership upon individuals who have demonstrated exceptional dedication to the MRA or to its goals and purposes.”
● George B. Hartzog, Jr., Award, The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (2013)
Awarded by The Coalition To Protect America's Parks. The George Hartzog Award is given to the individual or individuals who demonstrate outstanding support for the mission of the National Park System and/or the National Park Service.
AWARD JUSTIFICATION
“Since retiring from the National Park Service, Butch has continued to ‘stay involved’ in the national park ranger profession. Butch has devoted a significant amount of time and other personal resources to researching and documenting the ‘administrative histories’ of several ranger-related occupational techniques and practices now common in the National Park Service. These include the NPS ‘diving program’ and the ‘special events and incident management programs.’ In addition, he is researching and documenting the administrative history of the ‘ranger profession’ in Yosemite National Park. These administrative histories are undertakings that would never have been high enough in priority to be done officially by the NPS, but the products will provide long-lasting historical documentation that will be useful to the NPS for decades to come.”
● Otis H. Chidester (Scout Museum) Memorial Award (2014)
“For Outstanding Service To Scouting and the Community.”
● National Outdoor Book Award: Instruction for “Big Walls, Swift Waters: Epic Stories from Yosemite Search and Rescue” (2017)
The National Outdoor Book Awards (NOBA) is the outdoor world's largest and most prestigious book award program. It is a non-profit, educational program, sponsored by the National Outdoor Book Awards Foundation, Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education and Idaho State University. The awards are to recognize and encourage outstanding writing and publishing. The ten categories include History, Literature, Children, Nature, Natural History, Adventure Guides, Nature Guides, Design, Instructional, and Outdoor Classic. The winners are chosen by a panel of judges consisting of educators, academics, book reviewers, authors, editors, and outdoor columnists from throughout the country. See the Publications webpage.
● The Annual “Coke” Wood Award: Third Place (2021)
The “Coke” Wood Award goes to the best book or article dealing with Western American history based on individual research, personal knowledge, or family records. The monograph or article can be published by a university or commercial press, a historical society, the author, or by a corral or posse. Westerners International was started in 1944, has sixty chapters (“Posses,” or “Corrals”), largely in Western United States, as well as twenty Corrals abroad in ten countries. Its three-thousand members are absorbed/interested in Western history, heritage, and culture. This Award was for “Camp Lawton, 1921–2021: A Century of Scouting,” The Smoke Signal, Published by the Tucson Corral of the Westerners, No. 108/109. See the Publications webpage.