Roy Everett Butler

I was born in San Francisco in 1932, across from Golden Gate Park, and grew up in a world where flight was still young and possibility felt close to the ground. I entered the Marine Corps as a jet aviator during the Korean War era, later becoming a major and a training leader. Aviation shaped my life, from early military jets to the global reach of Pan American World Airways, where I served as a captain and eventually as system director of flight training. My work in cockpit communication and human factors helped form what would become modern Crew Resource Management.

After decades in the sky, I turned to painting, and much later, in my nineties, to poetry. Writing arrived quietly, almost shyly, as a way to reflect on aging, memory, gratitude, and the long arc of a life lived in motion. I write from my home in Linwood, New Jersey, where I live with my daughter and four cats: Holly, Sasha, Tasha, and Tiger. They keep the house warm and remind me daily that stillness has its own kind of flight.

My poems are short, gentle, and meant for quiet moments, the kind found at dawn, or in the soft hour before bed. They are for older readers who have lived long and still love stories, for pilots and veterans who remember the golden age of aviation, for sons and daughters seeking a meaningful book for someone they love, and for anyone who believes it is never too late to begin again.

At this stage of life, I write not to impress, but to share. If a poem of mine offers you a moment of calm or recognition, then it has done its work.