Cade Curfman, a member of the WVU Tech robotics team, works to build a robot. A $170,000 gift from the Butch family aids the WVU Tech robotics team in memory of James N. Butch.
The West Virginia University Institute of Technology is expanding robotics, mathematics and engineering resources for students with support from a dedicated family of WVU Tech alumni honoring its late patriarch.
The Butch family established three new funds to boost STEM education at WVU Tech, providing a total of $170,000 in memory of James N. Butch. The family’s gifts have a targeted focus on robotics, increasing financial support for materials and equipment, competition fees, travel, lodging, meals, faculty and more to aid the WVU Tech robotics team.
The funds also support enhanced math instruction and other areas of greatest need within Tech’s Leonard C. Nelson College of Engineering and Sciences.
“The three funds established by the Butch family at WVU Tech will be instrumental in preparing our undergraduates to be STEM leaders for our great state of West Virginia and beyond. The Butch family legacy is rooted in West Virginia, but its reach is international,” said Tamara Floyd Smith, dean of the Leonard C. Nelson College of Engineering and Sciences. “We are very proud of our connection to this family and its commitment to STEM education and excellence.”
Butch, a native of Elkins, West Virginia, was drawn to WVU Tech for its engineering programs. Butch met his wife of 45 years, Frances, while completing his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in the early 1970s. The couple settled in Charleston as they started a family that eventually included three daughters – Maria Franck, Jaime Frampton and Natalie Swartz.
Butch and two partners founded Eagle Research Corporation in 1976 and spent the first few years building computers out of a garage. The company grew – moving first to offices in St. Albans, West Virginia, and later to Hurricane, West Virginia – as Butch brought his passion for radio communication to the business and identified technological tools for the energy industry.
Swartz, who serves as director of operations, said her father relocated the business after he realized most of his employees were traveling from Putnam County. She noted that many longtime Eagle Research Corporation employees have remained loyal due to her dad’s gracious support for his staff.
All three of Butch’s children now work for the family business. While his daughters earned degrees from WVU and Marshall University, Butch’s grandchildren have chosen to follow in the footsteps of their grandfather at WVU Tech.
Swartz said both of her parents strongly believed in the power of education. The family’s latest contributions build upon her father’s previous gifts to empower faculty and students at WVU Tech to succeed.
“My dad very much loved all his professors, and he thought they were the best teachers,” Swartz said. “He wanted to support the faculty, and he wanted to support the students in having the materials they needed.”
The 2023-’24 WVU Tech robotics team members (from left) Sofia Filgueira, Ryland Luikart, Kayla Granger, Alexander Franck and Cade Curfman pose with faculty members (from left) Charan Litchfield and Bernhard Bettig.
Frances Butch devoted her career to education after completing her bachelor’s degree at West Virginia State College and her master’s degree at WVU. She taught at several schools in Kanawha County, from elementary through high school.
“I am proud to support WVU Tech as they continue to teach classes with exceptional professors in which the students attain a quality education,” she said.
James Butch was a longtime supporter of STEM education in West Virginia. His previous gifts established a radio frequency lab at Tech and an endowment to support senior design projects by students in WVU’s Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. The latter was named for Lyle Blackwell, a longtime faculty member who nurtured Tech’s engineering programs and influenced Butch’s education. His family continued that tradition by naming the newest funds for Blackwell.
Butch also served on advisory boards for WVU Tech, WVU’s Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources and the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering for 20 years.
Butch passed away unexpectedly June 12, 2020. His wife and children all reside in the Charleston area.
“James Butch lives on at WVU Tech through our inquisitive students who continue to explore and innovate,” said T. Ramon Stuart, president of WVU Tech. “The generosity and thoughtful commitment from the Butch family help us continue our work to train the leaders and engineers of tomorrow.”
The Butch family’s gift was made through the WVU Foundation, the nonprofit organization that receives and administers private donations on behalf of WVU Tech.