Butchie served on the hospital ship, Republic that broke down near the Panama Canal. Ben Ryan was stationed there, flying submarine patrol in a P-38. One blind date changed both of their lives forever. After a nine-month courtship, they were married.
QUITE A LIFE – BUTCHIE RYAN TURNS 100
January 3 is Butchie Ryan’s 100th birthday. To honor this remarkable woman, we’re sharing a few highlights of her very full life. The RAF will be forever grateful to Butchie and her late husband Ben for donating their Ryan Field property near West Glacier, Montana to the RAF so it can be enjoyed by all. “Getting to one hundred is clearly a milestone, but getting there with a real story to tell is something more, and Butchie has a real story to tell,” RAF Chairman John McKenna said, adding, “The RAF is so privileged to be a part of her story and aviation should be forever grateful.”
Agnes Butchkosky “Butchie” was raised in Pennsylvania. Her father was a coal miner and the family of seven managed through several labor strikes. Butchie enrolled at Kings County Hospital School of Nursing in Brooklyn, graduating in 1944. She was determined to join the Army Nurse Corps, even though she was too short. She piled her hair on top of her head which made her just tall enough. “Our generation was willing to step up and it was what I wanted to do,” she said.
It’s tradition that the bride of a pilot make her wedding dress out of his parachute. But silk becomes transparent if wet. Ben had ditched his P-38 after a midair, and Butchie said, “I was glad Ben’s parachute was at the bottom of Panama Gulf!”
When they were both discharged, Ben roughnecked on an oil well near Livingston, Montana.
Ben then attended Stanford for a degree in Petroleum Engineering, and the couple lived near Palo Alto for three years. Butchie followed Ben as his career with Richfield Oil took him to Bakersfield, Casper, WY, Caracas, Venezuela, Los Angeles, then Anchorage where they survived the 1964 earthquake. Ben’s notable achievement was endorsing his crew that had discovered the Prudhoe Bay oil field.
After retirement, the couple bought the quarter-section near West Glacier where Ben would carve Ryan Field from the heavy timber.
“We settled in Montana, a place Ben had loved as a kid growing up, with trout streams and good use for his shotgun or hunting rifle.” They built a home, and it began displaying beautiful wildlife mounts, including a moose that Butchie shot.
In 2005, the Ryans began incrementally donating their property to the RAF so the airstrip would remain a public-use recreational destination in perpetuity. By 2012, the Ryans gracefully let age lead them to a decision to move to a comfortable room at the Montana Veteran’s Home in Columbia Falls. Moving was a huge adjustment for them, but they approached it as another natural part of their life. Ben passed in 2017 after 71 years of marriage to Butchie.
Everyone at the RAF wishes Butchie a happy birthday, and expresses appreciation for the Ryans’ vision and generosity.
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“The only people who can change something are the ones who really want to. And not everybody does.” When I read this, it took me back to the early days of the RAF. We saw a troubling trend taking place — the loss of airstrips across the country with no real organized voices to help put the brakes on the decline. And we really wanted to change that. Change demanded new ideas from us. Ideas that we assumed would initially be resisted. This defined our purpose. Good ideas come with the burden of effort and purpose. That separates those with a strong purpose from those without. We wanted to create an organization that would counteract the attrition of backcountry airstrips we saw taking place. We rolled up our sleeves and didn’t look back. Easy to say now that the RAF was lucky, but it was purpose that drove the organization in the early years; that really formed who we are today. A group of people with a purpose who knew we needed more people who thought like we did, and cared; people who took this idea called the RAF and added to it, keeping it unique but effective. We felt that most of the existing business models in the nonprofit space were not what we needed to be, and we pushed forward persistently with our thinking – thinking that required putting our own personal desires aside and pursuing ones that were for a greater good. You joined in. You, too, found purpose in the RAF and now look where we are. Nearly 15,000 of us are making the necessary sacrifices to make our voices heard, to create a better environment for the future of recreational aviation. We have more opportunities today because of you. Each one of us is important to continue the momentum we have gained. To determine what the RAF can do to further our mission to preserve, improve, and create airstrips for recreational access. To prioritize the many opportunities coming our way. It is about us, and what we are going to do with the time we have left on this earth. This organization will hopefully give you purpose now and in the future. Most importantly, I really hope it will give you as much sense of accomplishment as it has me. Thank you for what you continue to do. - John McKenna, RAF Chairman Submitted April 15, 2026
FEATURING: THE RAF DOG COLLECTION MODELED BY JOSIE & MUD Outfit your four-legged co-pilot for every adventure! From airplane rides to backcountry trails, this collection has everything they need to travel in comfort and style. Featuring two new additions—a stainless steel Orvis dog bowl and DawgMuffs—alongside RAF favorites like the collar, leash, and bandana. This collection includes items designed and created by RAF supporters. Shop the Dog Collection here. If you have questions, please email contact@theraf.org or call 406-582-1723. Your RAF Outfitter purchase is greatly appreciated and furthers the mission to preserve, improve, and create airstrips for recreational access. You can support the RAF mission all year by shopping at the RAF Outfitter online store. Products are being added regularly, and items are thoughtfully selected for durability and suitability for pilots, by pilots. We welcome photos of supporters using RAF gear! Please send your images to ewhite@theraf.org , and let us know if we have permission to post them on social media or our website. Submitted April 5, 2026.
Call To Action Volunteer
As you're planning your 2026 flying adventures, remember to review safety briefings for the airstrips you plan to visit. The RAF strongly recommends you review safety briefings and print a copy to have in your airplane - it's even required to fly into some airfields, like Ryan Field (2MT1). For those airfields, pilots flying in are required to review the briefing on an annual basis, and now is the perfect time to catch up on any changes to the runway/area that happened throughout the winter. You can find safety briefings on the RAF Airfield Guide . If an airfield in the Airfield Guide has a required briefing, the airfield listing will clearly indicate it and have a tab to view the briefing. Submitted March 30, 2026 Photo By Jim Stevenson
RAF Texas volunteers and Ranger Airfield Foundation volunteers helped begin restoration of the historic 1928 Ranger Airfield hangar on March 28. “A Wright biplane landed here at the field in 1911, and people have been using it ever since,” Ranger Airfield Foundation Founder Jared Calvert said. He noted that Amelia Earhart landed there in a Pitcairn Auto Gyro. Richard Bach, Pancho Barnes, and General Patton also landed at the field. It’s the oldest continuously used turf field in Texas.
