Robert R. “Bob” Heaton, a Butler native, and successful self-made businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist, born six months before the Black Monday stock market crash of October 1929, died Saturday at his home in Butler Township under hospice care. He was 91.

Heaton was well known as a benefactor to Butler County Community College. His 90th birthday in 2019 was marked with an open house and reception at his beloved BC3.

“He valued education and hard work,” said his daughter, Leanne Heaton. “He was able to educate himself, and he realized what a benefit it had been in his life. He wanted to make it a little bit easier for someone else.

“He was an amazing man.”

Heaton, who joined the workforce at the tender age of 11, later worked four decades as a funeral director and mortician before helping start a real estate development company.

In 2016, Butler County Community College's John A. Beck Jr. Library was transformed into the Heaton Family Learning Commons.

BC3 officials launched the $5.1 million library renovation project using a $2.3 million state grant and a $1 million donation from Heaton.

“I really think that he saw himself in our students,” Nick Neupauer, BC3 president, said of why Heaton became such a backer of the college. “Bob loved our students. His face would just beam with pride whenever he had the opportunity to talk to our students.”

“He knew how tough it was to pull himself up,” said Ruth Purcell, retire executive director of the BC3 Education Foundation, “and he wanted to give other people the opportunity. He loved the college. He loved the students."

Read more in Monday's Butler Eagle