ABOUT HOWARD EDWARD BUTT SR.
Remembered best for establishing the American H-E-B chain of grocery stores, this twentieth-century entrepreneur is also famous as a philanthropist. In the mid-1930s, he launched both the Howard E. Butt Community Investment Program and the H.E. Butt Foundation; these organizations aided nonprofit and education programs in Texas.
During his high school years, he helped manage a small-scale food store that his mother operated. Before launching his own business career, he served in World War I.
His H-E-B chain opened its debut supermarket in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1952.
He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but raised in Kerrville, Texas. His marriage to Mary instagramstar.html">Elizabeth Holdsworth resulted in sons named Howard E. Butt, Jr. and Charles Clarence Butt and a daughter named Margaret Eleanor Butt Cook.
He and bernard-kroger.html">Bernard Kroger were both founders of major American grocery store chains.
