Ross Erin Butler Sr.

Margie died in May 2002 and Ross in July 2004. When Ross died, he was the last living founder of Ore-Ida Foods.

In 1961 the Butlers moved to Ontario, Oregon to be closer to the Ore-Ida Food headquarters. However, Ore-Ida Foods sold to H. J. Heinz Company in October 1965. Heinz maintained the executive group until September 1967 at which time Ross took over the Grigg Bros. & Butler Real Estate and Insurance offices in Vale and Ontario taking Gary Goodfellow as a partner. In 1978 Ross retired selling the business to Gary Goodfellow and Rusty Butler, their oldest son.

Ross received the Ore-Ida Council distinguished service Silver Beaver Award in 1956 and the BSA Regional distinguished service Silver Antelope Award in 1991. In 1992 he was awarded the first Hall of Fame Award for the Ore-Ida Council. All four of Ross and Margie's sons are scouts and at the time of his death he counted 35 Eagle Scouts in his posterity - but by January 2012 that number had risen to 42. The Butler family spent many summers at BSA's Camp Billy Rice at Warm Lake, Idaho.

In March 1946 Ross left Idaho Power to join F. Nephi Grigg and his brother, Golden, to form Grigg Bros. & Butler in real estate and insurance sales. He also worked to promote Grigg Bros. Produce, a sweet corn operation which eventually became Ore-Ida Foods, Inc. Ross managed the Grigg Bros. & Butler operation and served as corporate secretary and on the board of directors of Ore-Ida Foods. During this time the partnership also developed a brick-making operation named Oregon Clay Products, Vale Hot Springs Natatorium and Laundry, Oregon Feeding Company, Crown Cattle Company and other farming and industrial developments.

Ross and Margie were active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ross served as a counselor in the Vale Ward bishopric from 1942 to 1950, Nyssa Stake High Councilman from 1950 to 1952, Vale Ward bishop from 1956–1961, first counselor in the Nyssa Stake Presidency from 1961 to 1973, plus many other teaching and administrative positions. Margie served in the Nyssa Stake Relief Society Presidency and many teaching positions. In 1988 Ross and Margie served a one-year mission to Fresno, California. Ross worked in the Boise LDS Temple for the last two years of his life. Ross and Margie were interested in family history research. He was an advocate of family reunions and family organizations. Ross arranged for and worked with historian William G. Hartley to have his great grandfather John Lowe Butler and his grandfather Albert King Thurber's life stories written and published - "My Best for the Kingdom" and "Another Kind of Gold".

Ross Erin Butler Sr. (16 June 1916 – 3 July 2004) was an officer and original board of directors member of Ore-Ida Foods, and executive board director of Boy Scouts of America's (BSA) Ore-Ida Council for 64 years.

Born near Fairfield, Idaho, Ross was the ninth of eleven children of John and Bertha Thurber Butler. In 1917 the Butlers moved to Acequia, Idaho, and then again in 1922 to Twin Falls, where Ross began his schooling and his business career by selling newspapers at age four. In 1926 the family moved to Hollister, Idaho, where they lived until moving to Eden, Idaho, in 1933. While living in Eden Ross finished high school and met his future wife, a classmate in the class of '35 named Margie Dawn Werry. She was the daughter of Ezra Joseph Werry and Dot Allred and was born 12 October 1916 in Bellevue, Idaho.Ross and Margie were married in Moscow, Idaho on 19 September 1937. Ross graduated from the University of Idaho with a BS Business degree in 1939. In July 1939 the couple moved to Boise, Idaho, where Ross worked as an accountant for Idaho Power Company. In 1940 he transferred to Vale, Oregon, as their chief clerk.