Former
Common Pleas judge and civic activist Annette Garner Butler died December 31,
2018.
Butler was
appointed by Gov. John Kasich to the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas in
November 2011 to succeed Timothy J. McGinty. She lost an election the following
year to Steve Gall and her term expired at the end of 2012.
Butler was
well known in civic circles. She held numerous leadership and board posts at Cleveland
State University, the City Club of Cleveland, the Shaker Heights Library, the
Cleveland Heights-University Library, the Federal Bar Association, and numerous
others.
Throughout
her career, Butler made herself available to counsel and guide young people in
their lives and career choices, often acting as a one-woman employment referral
agency.
Butler grew
up on Cleveland’s east side where she graduated East High ’62. She earned an undergraduate
degree in sociology and psychology from Case Western Reserve University and
her law degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.
Butler spent the bulk of her legal career with the U.S.
Attorney's Office, serving as an assistant U.S. Attorney for Civil Trials and
Appeals. She has also worked in the private practice of law and later taught
legal courses at the Academy of Court Reporting & Technology and the
Justice Department National Advocacy Center.
Butler is survived by her children, Christopher Butler and Kimberly
Butler, and several siblings.
A memorial service will be held Wednesday, January 9 at 3p at
Amasa Stone Chapel, 10940 Euclid Ave., on the campus of Case Western Reserve
University. The family will receive friends on January 8 from 4-6p at Brown
Forward Funeral Home, 17022 Chagrin Blvd., Shaker Hts. OH.
