Every year, James Butler insisted on his “first dunk” in the ocean off Truro on Memorial Day weekend “no matter what,” according to his friend Mark Battista. Jim died at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston on April 29, 2024, surrounded by close friends. The cause was complications from leukemia. He was 52.
Jim was born in Ballycallan, County Kilkenny, Ireland on Aug. 7, 1971 to Philomena and Billy Butler. He grew up in Ballycallan with his sisters, Catherine and Ciara, and his brother Johnny.
“Jim loved a good time,” said his husband, Matt Sasso. “He was the center of the room.” In an online remembrance, his friend Carmel Greene from County Clare recalled how Jim “built stone walls at my house and danced as if he was in Riverdance.”
At 19, Jim enrolled in the National University of Ireland to study public administration. He graduated in 1996 and worked in local government, serving as an administration officer for the Dublin City Council from 2000 to 2003.
Toward the end of that time, Jim visited Boston and the Outer Cape. “He fell in love with Truro and was determined to live there,” said Matt. He moved to the U.S. and lived part-time in Boston and part-time on Truro’s Corn Hill.
Jim worked as a bartender at Phoenix Landing in Cambridge and The Skellig in Waltham. When his twins, Teddy and Charlotte, were born in 2009, he stayed most of the year in Truro and devoted himself to their care.
He was a lifelong member of the Provincetown Tennis Club and “an amazing player, the life of the club,” said Mark, although Jim “always avoided being appointed to the board of directors.”
When the twins were old enough to start preschool, Jim returned to Boston but kept up their Truro vacations. Jim worked for TLC Laser Eye Center as a surgical consultant, programming the laser equipment for surgery and monitoring its functioning during operations.
Jim was a dedicated father. “He made all the other dads look bad,” said his friend Dawn Oates of Brookline, herself the mother of twins. “Even the good ones.”
He was also an avid reader, especially of Irish literature. “He loved the arts,” wrote his friend Dawn Morrissey in an online tribute, “and wouldn’t miss an Irish film screened in Boston ever.”
“Jim was the most affable, lovable guy in the world,” said Mark, and “he was always thinking of others.”
“He would bake chocolate chip cookies and leave them at the homes of the people he cared about,” said Dawn. “He’d put them in the mailbox, or the milk box, or on the doorstep.”
Jim ran the Boston Marathon twice, and in his early years in the U.S. he ran the New York City Marathon in tandem with a blind runner.
“Jim had an incredible outlook on life,” said Matt. When he was diagnosed with leukemia in 2018, “he never let it destroy his spirit. He used to get up at 5 a.m. to bake cookies to bring to the doctors and nurses at his medical appointment at 8.”
Jim is survived by his husband, Matt Sasso of Bedford, N.H.; his parents, Billy and Philomena Butler of Ballycallan; his sisters, Catherine and husband Eddie of Listowel, Ireland and Ciara and husband Michael of Ballycallan; his brother Johnny and wife Jane of Ballycallan; his aunts Peggy and Mary of Ballycallan; and many nieces and nephews.
A memorial service was held at St. Brigid’s Church in Ballycallan on May 12, 2024 with more than 2,000 people in attendance. Interment of Jim’s ashes followed at St. Mary’s Cemetery, Ballykeeffe.
A spirited farewell will be held at 16 Hawes St., Brookline on June 15 from 4 to 7 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Jim’s honor can be made to the V Foundation for Cancer Research at v.org/.
