Common Cause Mourns Passing of National Board Member Butler Derrick

    Media Contact
  • Dale Eisman

The Common Cause family is saddened today by news of the passing of one of our National Governing Board members, former Rep. Butler Derrick, who died Monday after battling cancer. He was 77.

Derrick, a Democrat who represented South Carolina in the US House for 20 years before retiring in 1994, joined Common Cause’s board in 2009. He was recruited by Common Cause’s late president, Bob Edgar, who served with Derrick in the House in the 1980s.

Derrick is widely described as one of a last of a breed of southern Democrats, a respected legislator with friends on both sides of the political aisle.

“Butler Derrick represented a more congenial era in Congress, when legislators would put aside partisan differences to find common ground on critical issues that move the country forward. Congress could use a few more Butler Derricks today,” said Miles Rapoport, president of Common Cause. “Butler brought a genteel kindness and thoughtfulness to Common Cause’s board, and we will miss him.” 

After leaving Congress, Derrick was a partner at the Washington law office of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough.