The Charlie Butt Regatta is named for the man who coached W-L High School’s crews for nearly 40 years, expanded the sport’s reach to thousands throughout the Washington Metropolitan Area, and with his crews achieved national and international victories.  Charlie called the Potomac as it flows through Georgetown one of the finest natural bodies of water for rowing in the United States, and worked tirelessly to promote the river’s health so future generations could enjoy the sport in the heart of the Nation’s Capitol. 

Charles Stanley Butt, Jr., aka Charlie (1917 - 1992), was one of the earliest high school rowing coaches in Northern Virginia and instrumental in the growth of scholastic rowing in the Washington D.C. area and nationwide. The Charlie Butt regatta is sponsored by the Virginia Scholastic Rowing Association (VASRA) and is held each year on the upper Potomac River, on a high-school length course (1500 meters) ending just below the Key Bridge in Georgetown.

Coaching career

    After graduating with a degree in aeronautical engineering from MIT in 1941 (where he had been both a lightweight oarsman and coxswain), Charlie moved to Northern Virginia. In 1949, he approached the administration at Washington-Lee High School, offering to start a rowing team.

    In their inaugural season the Varsity Crew won all but their first race and culminated the season with a sweep of the "Big Three": NoVAs (Northern Virginia Championships), Stotesbury and the National Championships (held that year in Detroit, Michigan). Charlie offered a personal note to their championship win, crediting it to his refusal to let the W-L oarsmen fraternize with the other crews who stayed up late the night before playing cards in the gymnasium that collectively housed the contestants.

    Charlie, as he was called, not “Sir” or “Mr. Butt”, was head coach of Washington-Lee High School's Crew program in Arlington, VA for 41 years. He is regarded as the Father of Scholastic Rowing because he was instrumental in organizing numerous rowing programs in the area, both scholastic and collegiate. Charlie coached while working part-time for the Army as an Aeronautical Engineer. Looking like a true engineer, often wearing a tan Haspel suit, white shirt, bow tie and spectacles, not to mention his Beaver class ring, Charlie defined what the term “coach” was all about. In 1979 and 1980, he was recognized as Washingtonian of the Year for his contribution to many in his successful rowing programs, which had touched so many people and area high schools. In both 1964 (rowing in the "Dave Scofield") and 1969 (rowing in the "Avenger"), his boys’ Varsity Eight won the Princess Elizabeth Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta in London making them twice world champions and the first public high school to do so. Since this was only a club sport at a public high school, most of the money was raised locally to take his crew, boat and oars to England where they stayed in the neighboring town of Nettlebed. Over the years, his boats also had 19 scholastic National titles and more than numerous Stotesbury and Northern Virginia Championships. W-L's single best day was the Stotesbury of 1965. W-L won every heavy sweep event: V8, JV8, 3v, V4, and JV4. He has coached many Olympians, including Tony Johnson, the current head rowing coach of Georgetown University who gives credit to Charlie for his love for the sport.

    Being an instrumental person in the growth and development of youth rowing, Charlie also spent many summers and falls coaching rowers at Potomac Boat Club (PBC). Between 1961 and 1980 Charlie hosted and coached boats comprising parts of the Junior Men's National Team, rowing out of PBC.

Boathouses

    The creation of new rowing venues to allow for greater participation in the sport was of paramount importance to Charlie. He worked with many dedicated people to help create the Sandy Run Regional Park rowing facility on the Occoquan River in Fairfax Station, VA. He consulted as well on the development of Thompson Boat Center, a public rowing facility in Washington, DC, located near the Kennedy Center. Butt's ultimate vision was for the creation of an Arlington County boat house, from which teams and individuals from Arlington County and other close jurisdictions could row. Unfortunately, Charlie passed before he could realize his dream and see his W-L team row from the Virginia shore.

Personality and Philosophy

    Charlie was a major proponent of teaching people of all levels to row. His simple philosophy was “everyone on the dock rows”, and at times more than eight eights and a host of smaller boats would be on the water.  He was happy to stop and talk with, explain, or coach any interested person or group. He shared the idea that it was the novice rowers who were the key to the continued success of a team. He also believed that rowing required hard work and dedication, and if one chose to pursue it that it could teach you things about life as well. Charlie was known for having very strong and definite feelings about how the sport should be run and the direction it should go in. A strong proponent of sculling who always incorporated it into his coaching, he believed that the fine skills and precision needed to scull well transferred directly to sweep rowing. He often credited the success of his rowers to their ability to row either scull or sweep.

    This rounded viewpoint applied to all areas of his coaching style. Charlie was an early and continued believer in cross-training for success on the water, and health off. Coxswains were also held in high regard by Charlie. It was common for him to describe them as the "quarterbacks" of the crew. He was keenly aware that their skills could have a direct impact on the success of a boat. This worked directly into his philosophy that everyone on a crew was valuable, and that a crew was only as fast as their "weakest link." Everyone who knew Charlie characterized him variedly as honest, direct, thoughtful, spirited, compassionate, energetic, dedicated, wise, intelligent, learned, a scholar of the sport, and sometimes cantankerous.

    Charlie was one of the very few coaches to never cut an athlete from the team. He made room for every boy and girl who joined the team, and provided races for them whenever possible.

Inventor and Innovator

    Charlie was known as a tinkerer. He often collected boat parts and other mechanical tidbits and used them in efforts to create more efficient rowing gear. Having many friends in the national and international rowing community, it was not uncommon for Charlie to consult with and be consulted by boat, oar, and other rowing manufacturers. Charlie was partial to Volkswagens and drove a black VW Bug convertible, a Karmann Ghia, or a station wagon. The cars were repositories for rowing gear and often accommodated boats and oars to be repaired in the full shop in his basement and garage (which may never have seen a car). He proceeded to build composite singles (1x) during the late 70's through the mid 80's. The shells were known to be stable and fast, perfect for beginners especially. He also was known for creating rowing barges out of two shells placed side by side and connected via a metal scaffold and plywood. Charlie created and experimented with some of the earliest catamaran coaching launches, building them using old 1x's for the pontoons.

Family Life

    Charlie married Ms. Mildred "Millie" Martin, originally from North Carolina and then a teacher at W-L. They eventually settled in McLean, VA where they raised their family. Together Charlie and Millie had six children: Susan, Sarah, Janie, Nancy and Charles (Charley) III. Both Nancy and Charley followed in their dad's footsteps and each rowed and coached. The family was fond of travel and often spent vacations in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Many of their family trips, along with countless rowing practices and regattas, were captured on film and in video by Charlie. Photography was a hobby and a tool that he enjoyed; of course, several of said cameras can be found on the bottom of the Potomac River, as well.

Illness & Passing

    The 1990 spring rowing season saw Charlie becoming increasingly bothered by illness. It was discovered not long after that he was suffering from acute leukemia. Charlie continued to coach into the fall of 1991, but saw his energy, though not spirit, begin to fade. Even once bed-ridden, Charlie still entertained visitors in the form of past and current W-L team members (who still came to do yard work for the family even after his retirement), associates from PBC, friends, and family. It was with great sadness that word was sent out of his passing in early spring of 1992.

Text adapted from Charlie Butt - Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, and made available for redistribution under same. Photographs of Charlie Butt are Copyright George Kirschbaum and W-L Rowing Team, used with permission.