Feature Profile
Roy Clinton Jr.
Serving is Second Nature
Photos by Stephen Ironside
Butterfield resident Roy Clinton has been involved his entire career with finding ways to serve others and the community. For 25 years, Roy served on the Washington Regional Medical Center System Board, helping steer the course for the region’s only not-for-profit, locally-governed community hospital during a time of explosive growth.
Roy and his late wife, Butch, moved to Butterfield Trail Village in March 2017. Although Butch’s vision loss brought them to Butterfield, the couple came sharing the vivid joys of having children, family, close friends and 65 years of memories together.
Roy helped restore growth in downtown Fayetteville when business began to leave and head north to the Northwest Arkansas Mall. He came out of retirement 20 years later to provide a steady hand at the helm for a benefactor’s struggling Springdale development.
Throughout their time, Roy and Butch shared a love of nature and the outdoors. They traveled and hiked all over the country, but their greatest love was the Buffalo National River area and surrounding Newton County. “Magical, mystical Newton County,” Roy calls it.
From Fayetteville, north to Springdale, and frankly in every major city across Northwest Arkansas, Roy Clinton’s subtle leadership and sense of civic duty have paid off in a big way for the region. Ask Roy about these endeavors and he’ll likely downplay his own role, but make no mistake, he is proud of his community. “I’m a shameless promoter of Fayetteville and Northwest Arkansas,” Roy said recently from his Butterfield home. “Northwest Arkansas has been an incredible engine of growth over the past 40 years and Fayetteville is a microcosm of that. I’m so proud of what they’ve done and of the legacy that is being provided for future generations.” 6 BUTTERFIELD LIFE
MARCH + APRIL 2021
Butch Clinton
With Butch now gone since September, Roy remembers the kind, gentle and resilient person she was – wife, mother and tireless community volunteer. For 40-plus years, Butch volunteered at Washington Regional Medical Center, lovingly serving others, whether they were coming for surgery or emergency
