John Sibley Butler was born on July 19, 1947, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to T.J. and Johnnie Mae Butler but grew up in Franklinton.
While attending the Washington Parish schools, Butler was in the honor society and played the trombone in the school band; he also was active in Little League baseball and the Boy Scouts.
Butler served in Vietnam in the 1960s. In 1969, he earned his B.A. degree from Louisiana State University. Continuing his education at Northwestern University as a Fellow of Social Change, Butler received his Ph.D. in sociology in 1974. After receiving his degrees, Butler taught M.B.A. programs in Mexico and Japan. Butler was the founding editor of the National Journal of Sociology, which he edited for 15 years. In 1988, the University of California at Berkeley sought Butler for a think tank on Testing and American Organizations.
Butler authored several books, published numerous journal articles, and was recognized with several awards. Butler was also one of the distinguished professors selected for the election committee advisory board for then Texas governor George W. Bush in 2000.
He has been a professor at the University of Texas for 48 years. This year, he was nominated by UT alumni for the Alcalde award. This award recognizes professors who made their students’ time on the UT campus so memorable. Professors nominated are considered to have inspired, supported, and taught well beyond the syllabus.
Here is the article from the University of Texas explaining why Butler was nominated for the prestigious Alcalde award:
By Abigail Rosenthal
University of Texas
The titles John Sibley Butler has held over his impressive tenure at The University of Texas could (and do) take up pages. He holds positions on several boards, has received dozens of awards, has authored multiple books and hundreds of articles, was selected for the election committee advisory board for then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush in 2000, and was the Distinguished Visiting Professor at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan for 14 years. And he can tell you about every successful startup to come out of Austin over the past few decades.
Put simply, he’s a busy man.
At home on the Forty Acres (the name for the UT campus), Butler teaches courses on entrepreneurship, blending his business expertise with his knowledge of sciences, sociology, and psychology to dive into some of the world’s most successful businesses and innovators — Southwest Airlines, Dell, Facebook, and more.
“I don’t believe that disciplines should have barriers between them,” Butler says.
One of his entrepreneurship courses is open to students outside of McCombs, where he guides them on how to turn their ideas into viable businesses. He starts class with some words of encouragement: “When I walk in, I say, ‘Somebody’s got to be in the top of the 1 percent. Why not you?’”
But he still finds time for his other passion in life: music. Butler, who plays guitar and piano, and sings, credits his time in the Louisiana State University marching band for helping him get where he is today.
“I tell all people, my discipline comes from the music side … from being in the LSU band for four years and preparing a halftime show and knowing I’m going to be on national television, and I can’t be out there by myself. It was a lot of planning,” he says.
Butler hopes his students embarking on journeys in the business world hold on to their own creative passions.
“I connect with my students by bringing out the creativity that they have,” Butler says. “As a matter of fact, what I say is this: ‘Don’t allow the university to take away your creativity.’”
