By Victor Ochieng
Howard E. Butt Jr. died on Sunday evening aged 89, but his legacy lives on. The professed Christian revealed before his death that he used to suffer from depression as well as “all kinds of anxieties and fears.”
Despite his condition, he left a lasting and invaluable impact on the treatment of mental illness.
Butt’s family owned a thriving grocery business called H-E-B, a business Butt led. Besides managing the business, Butt was also actively involved in preaching the gospel that he even made an appearance alongside Rev. Billy Graham.
His depression and fears, however, came forth as serious challenges to his activities.
“I couldn’t tell anybody,” he later wrote. “In Baptist or evangelical circles, you didn’t flaunt your relationship with a psychiatrist; you hid it.”
Butt eventually acknowledged the need to address mental illness within the Christian community. This prompted him to build a facility that would help individuals suffering from mental illness. He built the structure on a 1,937 acre piece of land given to him by his parents.
He became more open about his condition, teaching mental illness victims about the importance of getting a rest and being part of a nurturing community.
The lodge he built on the piece of land mainly served as a resting and restoration place for those who visited and it also served as a place in which he shared the word of God and reconnected with others.
It was an invaluable place where people openly discussed matters of mental illness and provided a platform for Christians to hold discussions on the same. His initiative is still helping change many lives today.
Butt advocated for everybody to be involved in making the world a better place right from their professions, their local churches and family units.
“Christianity that does not change us in our homes will never change the world,” he said. “Church work is done wherever we have excellence in our work that exhibits love for the people we are working with.”
Being the eldest son of H-E-B founder, Mr. Butt took the mantle of leadership at the grocery chain, which boasts of 380 stores and 960,000 employees, with annual sales of over $23 billion.
H-E-B is a demonstration of exponential business growth, having been started as a mom-and-pop grocery owned by Butt’s paternal grandmother.
Source
