The University of Miami was established in 1925. But for its first 40 years there was no vice president for student affairs.

Then Dr. William R. Butler arrived in 1965 and would serve in that position for 32 years — UM’s first and longest tenured VP for student affairs.

From that time forward, UM students had a voice.

Butler died Dec. 30 at age 95.

His successor, Patricia Whitely, senior vice president for student affairs, said of Butler, “[he] was a tremendous mentor to me and hundreds of others, and he will be missed. He always kept the interests of students first and foremost and involved them in all decision-making. The changes and programs he incorporated during his tenure helped shape the student experience at the University of Miami over three decades. He was a visionary with an inclusive heart.”

She added that Butler “also had a tremendous impact on the internationalization of the campus and was always a great friend to international students.”

In UM’s obituary, President Julio Frenk pronounced Butler “a force for good, who left his mark on the University of Miami and all who knew him. His legacy of service, his heart for students, and his deep love for our community remains palpable on campus and will live on through the countless individuals whose experiences were enriched by his enduring wisdom.”

That legacy started with a phone call in June 1965.

Then UM president Henry King Stanford completed his three-year mission to reorganize the university’s top-level administration by hiring Butler away from Ohio University where he had served as the dean of men and assistant professor of human relations.

Stanford envisioned the post as “essential,” the Miami Herald reported in announcing Butler’s hiring in 1965.

In his role, which became official in August 1965 when his tenure began, Butler oversaw all services and personnel related directly to students’ welfare and activities and was in charge of UM’s then new Student Union.

“In Dr. Butler I am sure we have found the proper requisites of experience, enthusiasm and professional skill, coupled with the conviction that student activities are an integral part of the education experience,” Stanford told the Herald at the time.

Stanford’s certainty seems assured.

“Virginia and I came down for good, and we were never sorry,” Butler had said of his decision to accept Stanford’s offer and move to South Florida with his wife and their four children.

Until his retirement from UM in June 1997, Butler’s dedication to the Coral Gables campus included helping in the creation of its student-run campus radio station, WVUM, in 1968, and the construction of the on-campus Herbert Wellness Center that opened in 1996.

One of WVUM’s student DJs in the late 1980s, Margot Winick, who would become an assistant vice president for communications for UM and later perform similar public relations roles for the University of Florida and Nemours Children’s Health, posted on Facebook that Butler “left a wonderful legacy for UM students past and present.”

Butler also established the Hecht and Stanford residential colleges and played “an instrumental role in changing institutional policy so that students would have greater power in making decisions that directly affected them,” UM said in its obituary.

“For 17 years, he was responsible for admissions and financial aid, playing a key role in making the university more diverse as it boosted its enrollment of Black and international students,” UM said.

“More than a mentor, he was a true friend. He made a young kid from the islands feel deeply welcomed, accepted and valued in a new place, a new culture, a new continent. Every memory of him is cherished and every moment of our talks etched into my brain. He taught me how to find my voice and always reminded us to do the right thing,” former UM student Johann Ali wrote on a Facebook post Whitely shared on Friday.

“Dr. Butler — what a legacy. He was a historian of UM, through and through. I’ll never forget how he shared that Martin Luther King Jr. came to visit UM in the 1960’s, and now there is a plaque commemorating Dr. King’s visit on the Rock. Dr. B. was kind, warm and loving. And how he loved his wife dearly! I’m so glad he can be reunited with her today in Heaven. Thank you for your contributions to the U, Dr. B. You made our school a better place,” posted Shajena Erazo Cartagena.

Butler also created the Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee, a planning group designed to ensure that funds collected from student fees were properly distributed among the institution’s student organizations, according to the school.

In 1989, Butler founded a center offering graduate and undergraduate students volunteer opportunities for service-oriented organizations throughout Miami-Dade. The initiative was named the William R. Butler Center for Volunteer Service and Leadership Development.

During his retirement, Butler published three books — including “Embracing the World: The University of Miami from Cardboard College to International and Global Acclaim” — to raise money for the Butler Center.

Butler, along with the late Walter Etling, who had served on the UM Board of Trustees, and the late UM swimming coach Bill Diaz, were instrumental in approving varsity athletic status for women athletes and successfully fought to award intercollegiate scholarships for female athletes in 1973 at a time when they were awarded only to men. The trio’s accomplishment was before Title IX in 1980, which mandated enforcement of equality in scholarships for men and women athletes.

“UM was ahead of itself and proud of what we could do and did do,” Butler told the Miami Herald in 2014 for Etling’s obituary.

Butler also was a professor in UM’s School of Education and Human Development and a member of the university’s Iron Arrow Honor Society.

Above all, Butler wanted to give UM students a voice.

“The whole campus environment changed so that [the students] became an integral part of the university community along with the faculty and administration,” Butler once said, UM wrote in its obituary. “They were making decisions about their governance and how their fees would be allocated.”

Ed Williamson said he worked alongside Butler for seven years as chair of the Student Affairs Committee. On Facebook, Williamson called Butler a legend who “was the student’s biggest advocate.”

Naturally, in such a long tenure, controversies — big and small — would arise, calling for a steady and smart guiding hand.

Butler’s tenure, of course, encompassed the 1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s in which society navigated through significant cultural challenges concerning race and civil rights, sexuality, politics, the Vietnam War and campus protests, and the women’s movement, to name just a handful.

The UM’s reputation as a “party school” in Miami’s freewheeling ‘70s and ‘80s was one such challenge that Butler and the university’s students had to address.

In February 1987, Playboy magazine came calling, setting up camp across the street from the main Coral Gables campus in hopes of finding three UM students to pose naked for the magazine’s planned fall pictorial, “Women of the Top 10 Party Colleges.”

Playboy tried to advertise its coed search in The Miami Hurricane, UM’s student newspaper, but the administration rejected the ad.

“We have the freedom to accept or reject ads,” Butler told the Herald at the time. “They are interested in soliciting our students to pose nude in their magazine and declaring us one of the best party schools. I don’t think we have to lend our facilities to Playboy.”

More than 100,000 students were enrolled at UM during Butler’s 32-year tenure.

“Dr. B. led with heart and always eager to share his wisdom and enjoy the camaraderie with the students of UM. Blessed to have received some of that wisdom as a student,” posted Tiffany Bost Hladek on Whitely’s Facebook thread.

“An incredible advocate for students. Was fortunate enough to speak with him about his time at UM and his work with Cuban students,” posted Robert Castro on Facebook.

Butler was born in Robinson, Illinois, in 1926, and raised in a small rural community by his father who drove a truck for a fruit and vegetable company and his mother who worked for an electric company.

Early on, the family moved to Newark, Ohio, to run a family bakery. There, Butler graduated from high school in 1943 and worked in the bakery.

At 17, he convinced his parents to let him enlist in the Navy during World War II.

“With quite a bit of coaxing, I finally convinced them,” Butler once recalled, the UM wrote.

Butler was stationed in New Guinea for four months and then, at 18, in Brisbane, Australia, where he served in a radio unit that provided technical communications equipment for Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s beach landings, UM reported.

His final stop in World War II was the Philippines.

“We were closer to the scene of battle and were expecting to invade Japan,” Butler had said. “We didn’t expect that two atomic bombs would be dropped.”

After the war, Butler moved back to Newark, and went to Ohio University on the GI Bill where he earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in psychology.

His first career job in higher education was at the University of Kansas in 1951 where he was a teaching fellow. He earned his doctoral degree in counseling psychology at the university.

During his four-year tenure at KU, he served as the assistant dean of men and international student advisor and reportedly assigned basketball star Wilt Chamberlain to a room in one of the university’s new dormitories.

Not as simple as that may sound. Butler had to find a bed that could accommodate Chamberlain’s 7-foot 1-inch frame, UM noted.

Butler also served as dean of men and assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and returned to Ohio University in 1959 to become dean of students before fielding Stanford’s fateful call to come to Coral Gables.

“Dr. B was a gift to all of us. As a new professional, he provided tremendous role modeling for us to emulate,” posted KC White, who now works for Florida State University, according to her Facebook profile.

“I’ll never forget the day before commencement, 1994,” shared Annette Gallagher, a public relations executive in Pembroke Pines who was once a spokeswoman for UM. “My mom and sister tried to make it to commencement and the money just wasn’t there. I got called to Dr. Butler’s office, with no reason why. Given ME, it could have been a NUMBER of things, and I was understandably nervous.

“I sat there waiting, until finally his wonderful administrative assistant said I could go in. I walked into the office, and he came from around his desk, arms open wide, and wrapped me in a huge hug. ‘This is from your mom. She’s so sorry she can’t be here.’ I lost it, of course. We were very lucky to have him on our side. He, Dean Sandler and Tad Foote were all incredibly kind and good to me, and now they’re all gone,” Gallagher posted on Facebook.

Butler’s survivors include his children Michael Butler, Barbara Pierce, Jennifer Wade and Rebecca Butler; and grandchildren Patrick John Butler, Courtney Wade, Sarah Pierce and Emily Birdsong. He was predeceased by his wife Virginia.

Information on services is pending. Donations can be made to the William R. Butler Volunteer Service Fund.