Judge James N. Butterworth’s legacy will live on in Habersham County, thanks to a portrait unveiled Dec. 2 that now hangs in the county’s magistrate courtroom.
Butterworth died March 28, 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 restrictions, so many of his colleagues and friends who were not able to attend the funeral services attended the unveiling of the portrait.
Bruce Russell Jr., president of the Mountain Circuit Bar Association, organized and served as master of ceremonies for the event.
Butterworth’s daughter Boen Butterworth Nutting and his son James B. Butterworth unveiled the portrait, as they, their families and others got their first look.
The ceremony drew such a crowd it was relocated to the larger jury assembly room, where it still was standing room only.
Butterworth’s son Jim explained why the portrait unveiling was especially meaningful to him.
“This has been a long time coming obviously,” Butterworth said. “March will be three years, which is incredible. It's hard to believe that it's been that long. It seems like yesterday since we since we lost him, and we had a very appropriate time during his passing and at his funeral, but it was very limited in the number of people and so this is being able to do this is a blessing. I'm sure the crowd, if we had really made an effort, the crowd would have been triple this size. But we hear stories regularly about people and their memories of Dad, but the bottom line is we all miss him every day and think about him and the Bar Association and Habersham County in general. Doing this has been a has been a true blessing. And then Judge Caudell and Judge Smith, they have blessed us with this, and it will be a great grand thing to come see it in the courthouse.”
Superior Court Senior Judge Russell Smith said everyone should learn from Butterworth’s example.
“He was unfailingly dignified, and kind and patient,” Smith said. “I feel like he made me a better lawyer and I hope a better judge. One of my constant complaints now – and I blame this on Facebook, which the lawyers here know I don't like Facebook – we live in a world that is progressively less kind and civil. And he was unfailingly kind and civil. I think that it's fitting that his portrait hang in this courthouse. I know his family misses him, we miss him, and my commitment is to try and be more like him. I can't be tall. I can't be imposing. I can't have that beautiful patrician accent that he had. But what I can do, what we all can do – especially the lawyers – is to try to be kind to each other, to be civil to each other and to do what Jim Butterworth did.”
Smith said Butterworth wanted to be sure everyone was treated fairly.
“He was hilarious, funny, witty and wise, but more than anything, he was kind,” Smith said. “He offered to mediate for free cases, and he did that for me. He said, ‘You know Rusty, I enjoy what I do. If I can help out people and they can't pay, I'll be glad to mediate free’. And he did that on more than one occasion. He was a fantastic mediator.”
Butterworth was president and co-founder of S.A.V.I.N.G. Habersham.
Smith called it “one of the first programs that I'm aware of where he recognized that the way that we had needed to deal with the drug epidemic was to help people rather than throwing them away and he was doing that, and he was invested in that before it was popular, before it was cool.”
Superior Court Judge Chan Caudell said everyone can learn from Butterworth’s example.
“Judge Butterworth was a Southern gentleman in a time when maybe folks have stopped using that for whatever reason,” Caudell said. “He was very proud of it, and I think we could all be more like him in the way we treat people. We would all be better off.”
State Court Judge Steve Campbell, whose law practice is in Butterworth’s former law office, says he thinks about Butterworth every day.
“I miss him because not only just because he was my friend but also because he helped me out a lot and he showed me the way,” Campbell said. “And I'm still trying at some level to live up to all that.”
Campbell said he is thankful the portrait will hang in the courthouse.
I hope that this being in the magistrate court courtroom will inspire somebody else maybe to say who is that and they can learn about a really outstanding person and judge.
Butterworth practiced law in Habersham County from 1974 until beginning full-time service as chief magistrate judge.
He served as judge of State Court of Habersham County from 1985 to 1996, during which time he was elected president of the Council of State Court Judges of the State of Georgia.
Beginning in 2003, he was certified as a Registered Neutral by the Office of Dispute Resolution.
Butterworth previously served as president of the chamber of commerce, Packmaster and Scoutmaster of Cornelia Scout Troops, advisory for the North Georgia Technical College Criminal Justice Program, adjunct professor at North Georgia College, Truett-McConnell College and Gainesville College.
Butterworth’s daughter said the portrait unveiling was very special for her and her family.
Additionally, Butterworth served as president of the Chattahoochee Mountain Fair Association from 1978 to 1998, was a former member of the board of directors of the Jim Walters Family YMCA, and a former member of the Cornelia Rotary Club.
In keeping with his Southern roots, Butterworth was a charter member of the Lyman Hall Chapter Sons of the American Revolution, Habersham Guard Camp 716 of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a member of the Hugenot Society of South Carolina, a member of Clan McIntosh, and a member of First Families of Georgia.
In 2014, Butterworth was the recipient of the Boy Scouts of America Distinguished Citizen Award, and he served on the executive board for the Northeast Georgia Council, Boy Scouts of America, in 2015-16.
“Coming home is always an emotional thing for me,” Nutting said. “I just love driving into Habersham and when I come over the hill and see the mountains, I just am home. So, to be here with so many people that love Daddy, it means everything to me. It really does.”
Similarly, Butterworth’s son Jim said he is thankful for the tribute.
“It's a blessing just to be able to see it,” Butterworth said. “It's a blessing to be able to bring my kids up here, to have them here today. One day when we have grandkids, they will have never met him, and they'll be able to come see it. I think that's an important part of the legacy and, and from that regard, it's a wonderful thing to have been a part of it.”
http://accesswdun.com/article/2022/12/1153671/judge-jim-butterworths-legacy-continues-thanks-to-new-portrait