Richard Marsh Butler was born August 10, 1919, in Garland, Utah, the seventh of nine children of Heber Close Butler and Rose Zipporah Marsh. He graduated from Bear River High School. Richard married Geneil Miller in the Salt Lake Temple on September 4, 1942. He served in World War II as a pilot on the U.S. Air Force. In August 1943, he was captured after his plane went down over Naples, Italy, and spent at least 18 months in Italian and German prison camps. He was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving as a group leader in Chatoreau, France, a stake missionary in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the bishopric of the Riverside Ward in Calfornia, and as a patriarch. He died in Riverside, California, on December 15, 1984, at the age of 65.