Long-Time Administrator Elizabeth Butterfield Dies

Mrs. Elizabeth Butterfield, a long-time Harvard administrator who was extremely well-liked in the community, died last week in Cambridge. She was 65 years old.

Mrs. Butterfield retired from Harvard in February, after a 19-year career during which she was assistant to the dean of Radcliffe, assistant registrar of the Faculty and, most recently, secretary of the Social Studies Department.

Mrs. Butterfield had a reputation as a warm, outgoing woman who made friends easily with hundreds of students, faculty members and administrators.

Michael Walzer, professor of Government, who worked with her at the Social Studies Department, said yesterday, "She took great pleasure in helping people. I guess it's an old-fashioned way of being."

When Mrs. Butterfield worked in the registrar's office, stories were numerous among undergraduates about her help in steering them through Harvard's complicated bureaucratic channels.

She also founded the Bryn Mawr Book Sale in 1957 to raise money for scholarships to her alma mater. In addition to her full-time work at Harvard, she volunteered 20 hours a week at the store, located on Huron Ave. in Cambridge. Each year, the store raises more than $25,000 for the scholarship fund.

Walzer recalled Mrs. Butterfield's apparently limitless energy with great respect. "She did the secretarial work in our office with great ease, and had time left over for her many other activities," he said.

Marion C. Belliveau, the registrar for many years, said yesterday Mrs. Butterfield was "a tremendous worker, with lots of energy and drive."

Mrs. Butterfield also earned a reputation as a social activist, who spoke out often on the Vietnam War. Kirsti Gamage, the current secretary of Social Studies, said yesterday she remembers her "delight on going to the Registrar's Office and seeing this lovely lady who had attached a poster of Chairman Mao to the wall."

At a 1970 mass meeting against the war. Mrs. Butterfield took the microphone and, to thunderous applause, endorsed a University-wide strike to protest the Cambodian invasion and the killing of four students at Kent State University.

Mrs. Butterfield was also a frugal woman who disliked waste, Gamage remembered. "Her year in Social Studies she made all the food for the senior-Faculty dinner herself, because it bothered her that we were spending so much money," Gamage said.

Walzer explained that news of Mrs. Butterfield's illness had shocked her many friends. "When she retired this year, we expected that there were many years of continued activity ahead of her," he said.

Mrs. Butterfield is survived by her father, Cyrus Eaton, 95 years old, a Cleveland businessman whose liberal political views led him into friendships with Fidel Castro and Nikita Kruschev, among others.

She also leaves her husband, Lyman H. Butterfield, professor emeritus of History a son, Fox, who is the Far East correspondent for The New York Times, and a daughter, who lives in Cleveland.

In accordance with Mrs. Butterfield's wishes, her body was cremated. A private memorial service was held at the family's summer home in Scituate.

The family has asked that donations in lieu of flowers be sent in her memory to the Bryn Mawr Book Sale, 373 Huron Ave., Cambridge.