By Hinsdale Magazine Group staff

Editor’s Note. This article first appeared in the November/December 2024 issue of Oak Brook Magazine. Unfortunately, there were errors which this version has corrected.

This past October 6, in an event sponsored by the Oak Brook Historical Society, some 50-plus history buffs gathered at the Oak Brook Library to hear Reute Butler, granddaughter of Paul Bulter, share what it was like to grow up and watch her mother Jorie establish her own legacy. This, in turn led to “JORIE: THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF JORIE BUTLER KENT,” the book she co-produced with her mother, which was introduced to the gathering.

Reute began her presentation with the fact that the first of the Oak Brook Butlers born in the U.S. was Lt. William Butler in 1653 in Massachusetts.

His great-great-grandson Zebediah Sr. had a paper mill in Vermont with his son, Zebediah Jr.

Zebediah Jr. and Betsey Morris Butler’s son Oliver was the first family member in paper in Illinois, and built a mill in St. Charles on the Fox River by 1841, employing over 100 men. The company was incorporated in 1844 in the State of Illinois, and was the first fine paper mill west of Pittsburgh. Butler paper was the first American made paper used in the Congress of the United States.

Oliver’s younger brother Julius Wales Butler, grandfather of Paul Butler, joined Oliver in 1848 and became the agent for the paper company in Chicago in 1856.

Julius was extremely successful, and bought the company from Oliver in the 1870s. The Butler Paper Company passed to Julius’ son F.O. (who had begun to buy the original land which was the basis of Oak Brook today), then to his grandson Paul in the early 1930s.

Polo was established in Oak Brook by then, and during most of the 1940s to the mid-1970s, Oak Brook was the largest private polo plant in the world. Paul Butler’s children Jorie Butler Kent and her brother Michael ran the polo for much of that era.

Paul’s daughter Jorie was an accomplished horsewoman, and not only became very involved with the Oak Brook Polo Club, she also helped with the development of the Hunter Trails subdivision, ran the Oak Brook Sports Core, built the Oak Brook Bath & Tennis Club and ran the Butler Company as president.

In 1971, Jorie married Geoffrey Kent, and together they grew a small safari company in Kenya called Abercrombie and Kent into a premier worldwide travel business.

Like her Dad, Jorie also became very committed to promoting polo and conservation efforts which led to her establishing the Friends of Conservation. FOC is dedicated to preserving the Masaai Mara territory in Kenya and endangered wildlife, and supporting the Masaai who live there in conserving their wildlife and wild lands for posterity. Today, under Jorie’s daughter Reute’s leadership, the effort includes raising education standards for young women in the territory.

Jorie also founded Abercrombie & Kent Philanthropy, which has donated millions of dollars to grassroots projects in over 35 countries worldwide.

As Reute concluded, “Mother, indeed, has earned her own considerable personal legacy.”

Signed copies of the book are available on friendsofconservation.org via the donate page.