N.E. Butcher

N.E. (Nahum Ellsworth) Butcher was enrolled by Dr. David Ross Boyd, University of Oklahoma President, as the university’s first freshman in 1893/1894. As a sophomore, Mr. Butcher became the University’s first librarian at a salary of $10 a month. “We had quite a little library of books, very few of which would apply to education purposes in a university because they were given to us by ministers over the state and other people who had books they wanted to give away. Then we had a few dollars to spend for the books that different professors requested for use in their class work. First year, as I remember, they allowed us $500.” Mr. Butcher later served as superintendent of Norman public schools and president of the Oklahoma Education Association. In 1942, he retired as representative of American Book Company. Then, due to World War II, at the age of 70, he went to work at Tinker Air Force Base, where he was in charge of the message center for the 12,000 employees of maintenance engineering. Mr. Butcher retired from that position at the age of 85.

Source: Sooner Magazine, v. 30 no. 5 (Jan. 1958) and v, 38, no. 1 (Sept. 1965)