Last week I wrote about Kenneth Ricci '86 receiving the Cleveland- Marshall Distinguished Alumni Award.This morning I want to highlight another distinguished alumnus who also was honored at the recent CSU Distinguished Alumni Awards ceremony - Judge Annette Butler '70. Judge Annette Garner Butler received the George B. Davis Award for Service to the University, the highest honor conferred by the CSU Alumni Association.
The Davis Award recognizes a graduate’s generous dedication and service to the growth and advancement of Cleveland State University in honor of George B. Davis BBA’41 and MBA’81. It’s no coincidence that a majority of the George Davis Award winners since its inception have been graduates of Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Our graduates have consistently distinguished themselves by their service not only to the legal community but also to the civic life of Northeast Ohio and to Cleveland State University. Past Davis Award winners include Steve Percy '79, Sheryl King Benford '79, Kelly Tomkins '81 , Gary Adams '83, Irene Rennillo '83, Richard Stovsky '83, Congressman Louis Stokes '53 , and Timothy Cosgrove '87.
Judge Annette Butler's distinguished career has its roots at East High, where she was the first woman sports editor at her high school paper and one of four valedictorians. She worked three jobs to put herself through college, enrolling at Case Western Reserve University and then Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Annette has lived our mission: Learn Law. Live Justice. The 1970's saw the formation of the Black Women Lawyers of Greater Cleveland, founded by Annette Butler and Almeta Johnson, and the Cleveland Chapter of the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) founded by Stanley Tolliver '51. In 1974, the NCBL Cleveland Chapter filed a class action suit in federal court against the Cleveland Municipal Court alleging discriminatory hiring practices. The suit resulted in a consent decree being signed by the Municipal Courtjudges; the court agreed to follow fair employment practices in Butler v. Cleveland Municipal Court The Butler in that case was Annette Butler.
Annette served as president of the Black Women Lawyers Association, president of the Federal Bar Association’s Northern District of Ohio Chapter, the first elected woman president and first woman board chair of the City Club of Cleveland, and president of both the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Library and the Shaker Heights Library. She was the Urban League of Cleveland’s Woman of the Year. Her legal career includes service as an Equal Opportunity Specialist for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare’s Office of Civil Rights; attorney with Guren, Merritt, Sogg and Cohen; 24 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the United States Attorney’s Office; a hearing officer with the Cuyahoga County Board of Revision; and Judge on the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Since 2014, she has been the Assistant Director of Law for the City of Cleveland.
Annette has generously shared her time and energy with CSU for 30 years. She was a member of the University’s Board of Trustees from 1982-1989, including two terms each as vice chair and treasurer, followed by 23 years as a member of the CSU Foundation Board of Directors. She remains active with the Foundation as an Emeritus Director since 2012. She is a life member of the Cleveland-Marshall Law Alumni Association, and a former member of the Law Dean’s Roundtable and the Fenn Academy Oversight Board in the Washkewicz College of Engineering. Most recently, she was a member of CSU’s 50th anniversary planning committee.
We could not be more proud to call Judge Annette Butler “one of our own.”