{"id":3160,"date":"2018-03-20T06:51:24","date_gmt":"2018-03-20T10:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/?p=3160"},"modified":"2018-03-20T06:51:24","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T10:51:24","slug":"better-photo-of-chief-butts-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/better-photo-of-chief-butts-found\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Photo of Chief Butts… Found!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2012, the Raleigh Fire Department published a centennial history book<\/a>. The project committee included Mr. Blogger, AKA Mr. Historian.\u00a0For\u00a0the histories of the\u00a0Chief of Department<\/a>, we needed portraits of each person. But their quality varied greatly.<\/p>\n

One better picture needed was Fire Chief William Ralph Butts, who served 1941 to 1947. We had a scratchy copy of a copy, and we found an\u00a0somewhat better version with a scanned copy (from microfilm) of his obituary. (Via local history library, via first finding his death certificate on microfilm.)<\/p>\n

Found The Original<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fast-forward to 2018, and the original has surfaced,\u00a0from a collection of materials from retired Captain B. T. Fowler (1951-1986). He was the department’s historian for many years. He’s also the father of retired Fire Chief Earl F. Fowler (1999-2005).<\/p>\n

Left is the obituary image. Right is the original. Or should we say, apparent<\/i>\u00a0original? Looks like a clear match, except that it doesn’t. Butts seems older in the obituary image. But\u00a0that’s probably or certainly an illusion from the reduced resolution of the newspaper printing process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Victory Ball Committee, 1944<\/strong><\/p>\n

The picture is cropped from this larger group photo taken in 1944. It shows the “Committee for Victory Ball” in front of Memorial Auditorium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Who else is pictured? To the right of Chief Butts is Assistant Chief Robert Lee Matthews (1926-1963). Unsure of the others.\u00a0Click to enlarge:<\/p>\n

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