Former Cumberland County Sheriff Butch Burgess passed away this morning at Cumberland House Hospice care facility.  He had been battling cancer for the past several months.

Butch served as Cumberland County Sheriff for 16 year, first elected in 1998.  He was elected to four terms total.  Before his career in law enforcement he served as director of the Cumberland County Boys Club.  Butch Burgess has helped our youth for decades in the county as well as showing his adoration through the years for thousands of other children including raising, along with his wife Vickie, over 50 foster children. Matter of fact, Butch always had the same answer for almost any personal question regarding family: “Well, I just do what Vickie tells me”

Butch Burgess was responsible for the creation of the House of Hope  – a temporary safe haven for young children who are removed from meth households and other dangerous environments. The House of Hope has served as a model for similar facilities throughout the United States and has been featured on national network television. National Exchange Club President Don Wright said of Butch ““When you have people like that, who serve from the heart, and have a passion and commitment like Butch, things get done.”  Wright continued, “You (Butch) don’t know how many hearts you’ve touched and how many lives have been changed.”

Earlier this week, we published this information about Butch and asked the community to post comments about the former Sheriff.  We printed off the dozens of comments along with hundreds of ‘likes’ from the Facebook story and delivered them to Butch.  We were pleasantly surprised to hear that his wife Vickie and others had already been reading Butch the many very heartfelt comments even before we took them to him.  We were told that Butch was very delighted to hear the many wonderful sentiments and outpouring of love from the community.  I want to thank everyone who posted the comments on the page and the family wishes to thank everyone for your very sincere remarks to Butch.  We will be updating you with the funeral arrangements as soon as we get them.