After living life to its fullest, Butch passed away peacefully at home on February 4, 2021 and went to be with his Heavenly Father.
Butch’s adventures began when he was born in South Los Angeles California on October 7, 1944 to Allen and Pauline Norris. After a few temporary jobs in his late teenage years, Butch was hired by Colorado Department of Transportation in 1964. He started as a surveyor, worked his way up, and retired in 1997 as a Civil Project Engineer. He had a key role in surveying, designing, and constructing 43 bridges and numerous state highways throughout the Western Slope of Colorado. Because of his attention to detail and understanding of civil engineering he was frequently consulted by others across the state, even after he retired.
Many knew “Wild” Wesley through his racing adventures. He was just five years old when he named himself “King of the Block” because he had the fastest homemade tricycle/bicycle. That was the beginning of his need for speed as he raced anything that had wheels. He was most fond of his stock car racing where #77 was cheered on the Cactus Park Speedway dirt track for 15 years. Others knew him for being the oldest go-kart racer. He was very proud to have met and beat NASCAR’s Bill Elliot while racing at the Grand Junction Motor Speedway. On his down time, you were likely to see him riding his Harley around the valley or hanging out with his antique car club friends.
Friends and family shared Butch’s love for life and adventure. His ability to pull off pranks were legendary. If you were to stop by his house, you would most likely find him in his garage tinkering with something new. His engineering mind made him a natural for designing some new-fangled-thing that you couldn’t find in a store or on-line.
Butch and Debbie loved to travel and took many trips across the world to see family, friends, NASCAR and the beaches of Hawaii. Over the past two summers, they enjoyed building a summer retreat where they parked their camper in the mountains at Arrowhead. Butch, of course, surveyed and designed the layout of the property and spent many hours on the old tractor making it perfect for his family to visit, play, and watch the wildlife they adopted as pets.
Most dear to him were his family. He married Phyllis Kellerby in December 1964-1982. They had three children, Paula, Sheri, and Jimmy. He married Debbie Dixon-Clark on October 7, 1989 to present. He then became a father to Cerina, Dawndea, and grandson Sean.
Butch is survived by his wife Debbie, children Paula (Jim) Creasy, Sheri Norris, Jimmy (Joy) Norris, Cerina (Shannon) Gearhart, Dawndea (Jason) Ulibarri-Kurtz all of Grand Junction and Sgt. Sean Ulibarri, stationed in Italy with the US Army. Other survivors include a sister, Sherron (Len) Walton, nephews, Ron (Ladonna) Walton and Paul (Shawna) Walton and a niece, Angie (Katie) Larson. There was always a special place in his heart for his 13 grandchildren, Chelsey, Ernie, Alex, Robert, Stacey, Alisha, Eric, Mitch, Sara, Cody, Jesse, Heather, and Sean. He also was survived by numerous great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
Services will be held February 15, 2021, 10:00 a.m. at Martin’s Mortuary. Graveside services will follow immediately after.
