The collision repair industry is mourning the sad loss of Steve Butler, one of its most respected and pioneering champions.
Steve passed away earlier in December at the age of 75. He is survived by his wife Jill and son Nick. Steve’s funeral will take place on 30 December in Shrewsbury (details below).
Industry mourns Steve Butler
Steve founded the business consultancy ACT (Transnational) in 1997, working with bodyshops to achieve the compliance requirements of the day. He retired as managing director in 2014.
Before setting up ACT he worked at the VBRA, BASF, and Centrex, but Steve’s impressive CV tells only half the story.
Business development consultant John De Courcy, who worked with Steve on the Glasurit account at BASF and remained a close friend throughout, said: “Besides being an all-round great guy, Steve had a massive impact on the industry. He started in the trade like most of us but as training manager for Glasurit – where he was key to us winning the Rolls-Royce and Jaguar Land Rover business – he became a bit of a pioneer. He got involved with SATA on the development of paint in spray guns and he was instrumental in bringing infrared curing into the UK.
“One of the most important things he was involved with, and this shows the foresight of the man, was in the late 1980s when he said, ‘If we don’t train people and get apprenticeships going, we’re not going to have any follow-through of people into the trade’. He worked very hard on that with Volkswagen with a guy called Joe Smith, who a lot of people will remember, setting up the training awareness programme for the [manufacturer],” John added.
‘A real character’
Chris Mann, who as chairman of Bodyshop Magazine and IBIS Worldwide hosted Steve on a number of trips to the US for International Autobody Congress and Exposition (NACE) events, said: “Steve was a real character. He could be totally infuriating but was great company and we had a lot of fun times together.
“On one of the NACE trips to Las Vegas, Steve complained to me that there were no windows in his hotel room. I thought that was pretty bizarre as I’d never heard of a hotel room without windows. It turned out that the hotel’s contractors had removed the windows but hadn’t got round to replacing them when he arrived. Fortunately, we managed to find another room for him, this one complete with windows.”
Mark Wheeldon, who is managing director at ACT (National), said on social media: “Steve was a mentor, a former business partner and, most importantly, a friend.”
In a statement, ACT said: “Following a career which took him from a ‘backstreet panel beater’ to an internationally recognised accident repair industry speaker and trainer, Steve was the very definition of a people’s person and was liked and respected by his peers in equal measure. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.”
Steve Butler’s funeral will take place on 30 December at 1:15pm at Emstrey Crematorium (London Road, Shrewsbury SY2 6PS), followed by his wake at The Wroxeter Hotel (Wroxeter, Shrewsbury SY5 6PH), which is a seven-minute drive from the crematorium.
