Robert Butler was born January 23, 1927, at 704 N. Garfield to Homer and Eva Clarida Butler and had one younger brother, James William. He attended Jefferson, Logan, and Washington schools and Marion Township High School, graduating with the class of 1944. During World War II, he studied for two semesters at the University of Illinois under the Accelerated Wartime College Program before entering the Army, where he served in the 971st Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment in Korea prior to the Korean War, then returned to civilian life. After the war he studied for a year at Southern Illinois University, transferred to the University of Illinois, earned a law degree there in 1952, and married Louetta Sanders of near Pittsburg in 1951. They became the parents of one daughter, Beth Ann. Butler returned to Marion and served as Assistant State’s Attorney for Williamson County until 1963, gaining experience in politics in a family with deep public involvement: his father was a longtime columnist for the Marion Daily Republican, a state legislator, a member of the Marion City Council, and a member of the Marion High School Board, and his maternal grandfather, J.H. Clarida, had served as Marion’s mayor in the mid-1920s. In the 1963 local election, Marion voters elected Butler mayor, beginning a tenure expected to extend into the 21st century and possibly make him Illinois’s longest-serving mayor. His first City Council meeting was cut short by a major commercial fire on the southeast corner of the square that burned several businesses. While serving as mayor and maintaining a law practice, he was also a delegate to the 1970-1971 Illinois Constitution Convention in Springfield, whose constitution still serves the state. Under his leadership, Marion and surrounding areas prospered, the city expanded to nearly twice its 1963 size, the population increased, and Marion maintained its position as the economic and cultural leader of Southern Illinois. His leadership was especially tested after the 1982 tornado that struck Marion, when he led the city from severe destruction to greater heights. A signature accomplishment was renaming Marion "The Hub of the Universe."