Willie Butler talks to Olivia Cinquepalmi, acting junior, during Gamma Phi Beta’s Annual Pancake Palooza philanthropy event Jan. 30 at the Gamma Phi Beta House. Willie was on hand throughout the night to help cook the pancakes and converse with students.
Willie Butler, the weekend grill man in the caf, feels grateful for students.
Butler deviates from the menu, allowing students to create their own specialized meals. He takes any requests, but for Valentine’s Day, he goes all out.
Butler said:
It’s my responsibility to treat you well–like a name, not a number. You’re not a meal plan. You’re a person.”
Butler said his background taught him how to treat people, especially women. He grew up in a house with a mother and 14 sisters who taught him “domestic chores and gentlemanly behavior.” He lives alone now, but has a lot of family, including his sisters, nieces, and students.
“I know my place on the food chain: elderly, children, women, then me,” he said. “Blood is not thicker than water. All women are my sisters, and we wouldn’t have anything without them.”
After moving out of his childhood home, Butler joined the Army and served in Saudi Arabia and in Germany. He spent three years in Saudi Arabia during the ‘90s. When he returned, he said he kissed the ground.
“You learn to appreciate ladies when you spend three years in Desert Storm without them,” he said. “I thank God for my ladies and for you students. Without y’all, I don’t know if I’d be here.”
Butler’s 12 years of military service caused him to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Working at OCU has helped his spirits immensely, he said, but it has been difficult.
“I haven’t been to my therapist in two and a half months,” he said. “Know why? You guys.”
Willie loads a basket with fries.
Before joining the Sodexo staff, Butler worked in a managerial position that paid $18 an hour. He quit that job to come to OCU because this job makes him happier, he said. In the eight and a half years he has been at OCU, he has missed two days.
“I’ve been working for 37 years, and this is the best job I’ve ever had,” Butler said. “I get hyped when I see that line at the gate and you see the people run toward me at the grill. It doesn’t scare me. I’m ready to roll.”
Each time Butler gets a paycheck, he pays his bills and uses the rest of the money to help his nieces. He has made car payments for them and even paid one niece’s way through college. It’s his duty to help them out with anything, he said, no questions asked.
He said:
I’m not trying to be a millionaire. I have a million dollar heart, and I need to spread it out. You can’t put a price on happiness. I won the jackpot already, being here.”
One student said she appreciates Butler’s attitude.
“When I go see Willie on the weekends, it makes my whole weekend better,” said Callie Dewees, acting freshman. “It does. I love the man.”
Besides manning the grill, Butler caters events, attends basketball games and helps with sorority philanthropy weeks. During the week when he’s not working, he takes walks and checks on his sisters and nieces. He also loves spending time with President Robert Henry and meeting students’ parents because he feels like their parent away from home.
“Take Amanda Wright (acting senior) and her parents, for example,” Butler said. “They make me want to move to California with them. Think they’d adopt a 52-year-old man?”
Butler will turn 52 on Feb. 25. He said he plans to cook brunch and bring in sheet cakes for everyone, including students without a meal plan.
“They think I’m crazy to want to work on my birthday, but I’ve got to spend my day with my family,” Butler said. “Since I see you the most, y’all are my first family.”
To express his gratitude and show OCU men how to properly treat a lady, Butler will host a Valentine’s Day brunch with chocolate-covered strawberries, cupcakes, candies, stuffed animals, and heart-shaped red velvet and strawberry cheesecake pancakes, he said. Butler also plans to print Valentine’s cards to spread on the caf tables.
The Valentine’s Day festivities will include the Feb. 14 brunch in the caf, as well as Valentine’s dinner from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12 in the Great Hall in Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center. The formal dinner requires two meal swipes, points, StarsCash, cash, or credit.
Students can R.S.V.P. for the dinner by emailing Sherri Cain, catering director, at sfcain@okcu.edu by Feb. 10.
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