By GREGORY ZELLER //
Few Long Island social leaders have received as many accolades as Calvin O. Butts III, and few deserve to.
The national human rights icon, pastor of New York City’s influential Abyssinian Baptist Church and president emeritus of the State University of New York at Old Westbury died Oct. 28 from complications due to pancreatic cancer. He was 73.
His passing leaves many gaping holes.
Abyssinian Baptist, where Butts became a youth minister in 1972 and served nearly three decades as lead pastor, announced his death “with profound sadness.” SUNY Old Westbury – where the lifelong New Yorker spent 20 years as president, becoming the school’s longest-serving and most successful leader – praised his “pervasive impact on such wide-ranging community development initiatives as education, homelessness, senior citizen and youth empowerment, cultural awareness and ecumenical outreach.”
Tim Sams: Learning from the best.
SUNY Old Westbury President Timothy Sams, who succeeded Butts following the longtime president’s August 2020 retirement, said meeting the man and coming to understand the breadth of his accomplishments were equally inspiring.
“I had the pleasure of engaging with Dr. Butts a few times since my arrival on campus,” noted Sams, a veteran academician and former Prairie View A&M University vice president who officially assumed the office in January 2021. “I was, and always will remain, impressed not only by his love for this institution and its people, but for his belief in the powerful role SUNY Old Westbury must play in providing access to a high-quality education and for its historic commitment to social justice.”
If quality education was one side of Butts’ coin, social justice was surely the other.
Serving on the leadership boards of the Long Island Association, the Long Island Housing Partnership, the Community Development Corp. of Long Island and other regional and national social organizations – and especially as the beloved pastor of Abyssinian Baptist, the Harlem-based megachurch and historical center of African American spirituality and politics – Butts was a constant voice for racial equality and just causes.
His powerful and unblinking sermons helped build the circa-1808 church into a globally renowned mecca and gained the pastor executive attention: The Morehouse College graduate (BS philosophy, 1972) – who earned his Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary and his Doctor of Ministry from Drew University – received honorary degrees from many schools, key early-2000 economic-development appointments from then-Gov. George Pataki and even the friendship of President Bill Clinton.
Well spoken: Butts’ influential sermons stirred Abyssinian Baptist and thousands of others.
In a statement, the former president called Butts “a giant in Harlem – not only leading his congregation at Abyssinian Baptist Church but ministering to and serving the entire community.”
“He was also a great president of SUNY Old Westbury,” Clinton added. “I will always be grateful for his friendship and support.”
American civil rights activist Al Sharpton noted in a statement that he didn’t always see eye-to-eye with his fellow Baptist minister, but insisted the issues and principles uniting them were stronger.
“He was an educator and a pastor of the highest level,” Sharpton tweeted. “We found ourselves differing at times, but we’d always come back together.”
For all his far-reaching achievements, Butts’ most tangible legacy may be at SUNY Old Westbury, which experienced decades of enrollment and infrastructure growth on his watch.
Bill Clinton: Grateful for friendship.
The longtime president significantly raised the college’s admissions standards while simultaneously increasing student enrollment by 56 percent. In 2004, he ushered in graduate instruction; today, more than 300 students are enrolled in 19 SUNY Old Westbury master’s degree programs.
He also oversaw more than $200 million in capital construction and renovation projects, raising new residence halls, a $64 million Academic Building – Long Island’s first LEED Gold-certified higher-education building – and other student and staff facilities.
By shepherding those construction efforts and working with regional industry to sharpen his school’s workforce-development focus, Butts significantly bolstered Island-wide socioeconomics. Long Island Association President and CEO Matt Cohen trumpeted the leader’s “transformative impact on Long Island by educating future generations and advocating for our region’s economic growth.”
“Reverend Calvin Butts was a giant of his time who served his faith and his community with great passion,” Cohen added in a statement. “I feel blessed to have worked with him when was the president of SUNY Old Westbury and on the LIA Board of Directors.”
LEED by example: SUNY Old Westbury’s Academic Building broke the environmental mold when it opened in 2012.
Including his full résumé of high-profile national appointments – chairman of the board of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, board seats on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, the September 11th Fund and more – the man’s legacy will linger at SUNY Old Westbury and beyond, according to Sams.
“The widescale effect of his lifelong calling to serve others is incalculable,” the SUNY Old Westbury president said. “His was a life lived in the service of others.
“While his loss is saddening, I hope we can all use it also as a call to continue the life-changing work he did on so many important issues.”
