Stephen and Tricia Butler Scholarship in Aviation

Stephen Butler attended SIU from 1996 to 1999 and is a proud graduate of the Aviation Flight and Management programs. Stephen worked line service while a student and later flight instructed for the University during his senior year. His final semester was spent interning at American Airlines which lead to his first airline job flying Beach 1900’s for Great Lakes Aviation based out of Chicago O’ Hare. It was during his time at Great Lakes that he met his wife, Tricia, while flying through Oshkosh, Wisconsin where she was a business student at The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. As luck would have it, she was hired by Great Lakes to work the ramp and check-in counter during the busy summer travel months prior to her senior year. Though her employment there was temporary, it was long enough to cement their relationship and they have been inseparable since.

Stephen later went on to fly for Comair, Continental, and now United Airlines and is currently a captain on the 737 based out of San Francisco where he and Tricia reside. Though market conditions for pilots have changed drastically in recent years, the financial roadblocks to flight training have not. It is through this scholarship that Stephen and Tricia wish to give back to the University and provide some financial assistance to the next generation of SIU Flight and Management students. Go Dawgs!

• Scholarship for a student enrolled full-time in Aviation Flight or Aviation Management as a sophomore, junior or senior.
• Recipient must have attained their private pilot license.