The Distinguished Service Award is the premier community award given annually in Butler County.

It was established in 1949 to honor outstanding volunteerism in the Butler community. In 1952, the award was split to honor two people annually: a junior, 45 years old or younger; and a senior, older than age 45.

The award is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Butler and the Butler Eagle.

Award winners and the year they were honored are:

SENIOR1949 No award given1950 No award given1951 No award given1952 Elias Ritts1953 Carmen V. Marinaro1954 I. Max Jaffe1954 Ira E. Keck1955 Edward A. Roncone1956 Charles A. Snyder1957 A. Whitney Murphy1958 Harry S. Hagen1959 William Horowitz1960 Louis Karges1961 John Chiprean1962 Vernon L. Wise Sr.1963 Michael Chuhra1964 The Rev. Max E. Smith1965 Bernard J. Bryan1966 Hy Hurwitz1967 Mitchell G. Uram1968 Robert L. Kaufman1969 Calvin E. Bieseeker1970 T. Earl Boliver1971 William C. Graham1972 Dr. William Armstrong1973 Saul J. Bernstein1974 Lois S. Jaffe1975 Jean B. Purvis1976 Andrew Yaracs1977 Gail L. Rose1978 John Eisler1979 Charles Thompson1980 William J. Lutz1981 Hugh Stratton1982 Sophia Himchak1983 Guy Travaglio1984 Elinor Branning1985 Mary Phillips1986 G. Edward Howard1987 John W. Gumpper1988 Margo B. Pitts1989 Nancy Murrin1990 Reldon Cooper1991 John E. Kosar1992 Amy Beiler1993 Bill Bessor1994 Dale Pinkerton1995 Joseph Smith1996 Ida Findley1997 Robert Thompson1998 Anabel Brunermer1999 Charles W. Beighney2000 Pete Richdale2001 Millie Pinkerton2002 Wesley Hamilton2003 Abie Abraham2004 Wayne Myers2005 William “Digger” Young Jr.2006 Tullio “Doc” Viola2007 Bill Bittner2008 Kenneth Bennett2009 Sherry Kyne2010 Jocelyn Howard Sinopoli2011 David H. Tack Sr.2012 Lisa Konesni

JUNIOR1949 John N. Gazetos1950 Robert Bruce Faulk1951 Joseph Davidson1952 No award given1953 Rabbi Robert Syme1954 Arthur O. Black1955 James D. Lawson1956 Earle D. Whitney1957 John L. Wise Jr.1958 George T. Walters1959 David Lloyd1960 C.R. Crawford1961 Edward P. Vargo1962 Charles Fuellgraf Jr.1963 James A. Green1964 Leonard A. Green1965 William A. Lehnerd1966 C. Thomas Kelly1967 Larry M. Berg1968 Thomas Patterson1969 Hal Hamilton1970 James Jones1971 David L. Tressler1972 The Rev. John Ayoob1973 Don Donaldson1974 George Braun1975 Edward Wadding1976 Alberta (Schaffnit) Stoll1977 Sue Bennitt1978 Fred Bennitt1979 Jack Barkley1980 Ronald Brandon1981 Linda Bennitt-Hemmes1982 Dr. Carole Bitter1983 Patricia Patterson1984 Vince Tavolario1985 Vickie Hinterberger1986 Vickie White1987 Dennis Rickard1988 Cynthia Sweeney1989 Jud D. Stewart1990 Brad Magill1991 Anne A. Miller1992 No award given1993 Ron Vodenichar1994 Sharon Clouse1995 Rebecca Plymale1996 Michael Slupe1997 John Spryn1998 Tony Chiprean1999 Leslie A. Osche2000 Harold Jurysta Jr.2001 David Crater2002 Kristen A. Hofer2003 Michele Jurysta2004 Nancy Hunter Mycka2005 Lisa Guard2006 Jennifer Roxbury2007 Jennifer Sproat-Whitmoyer2008 Robert McCafferty2009 Dixie Lee Lipnichan2010 Nicole Bronder-Robinson2011 Tom Panei2012 Chris Ziegler