Kenyon L. Butterfield


Kenyon Leech Butterfield was an American agricultural scientist and college administrator known for developing the Cooperative Extension Service at the land-grant universities. He was president of the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts ; the Massachusetts Agricultural College, and the Michigan Agricultural College from 1924 to 1928. He also served as president of the American Country Life Association.

Biography

Kenyon Leech Butterfield was born June 11, 1868, in Lapeer, Michigan, to Ira H. and Olive F. Butterfield.
He married Harriet E. Millard of Lapeer on November 28, 1895.
He attended public schools in Lapeer and earned a bachelor's degree in 1891 and master's degree in 1902 at Michigan Agricultural College.
Butterfield began his academic career as an instructor of rural sociology at Michigan Agricultural College in 1902, and became president and professor of political economy and rural sociology at the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, serving until June, 1906. On July 1, 1906, he assumed the presidency of Massachusetts Agricultural College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He eventually returned to his alma mater Michigan Agricultural College as president from 1924 to 1928.
Butterfield was an early proponent of extension education programming at the Land Grant Colleges rather than extension activities being a direct responsibility of the U.S Department of Agriculture, an idea championed by fellow Extension pioneer Seaman A. Knapp. Using state funds in April 1904, Butterfield created an Agricultural Extension Department at the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and in 1906 did the same at Massachusetts Agricultural College. The organizational structure of these two colleges formed the basis of the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, which authorized federal funding of comprehensive Cooperative Extension programming by Land Grant Colleges and Universities nationwide.
He died from a heart attack at his home in Amherst on November 26, 1935.

Legacy

Butterfield Hall at the University of Rhode Island, Butterfield House at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Butterfield Hall of the Brody Complex at Michigan State University are all dedicated in his name.

Selected works