A Butler native, who a local attorney calls a legend in Pennsylvania politics, has died.

Bill Green died Sunday at age 76.

Green was a former Boy Scout leader for Butler attorney Tom King and many other boys in the downtown area.

“He was a real powerhouse in Republican politics,” King said. “Everybody knew him.”

King said Green served as spokesman for Dick Thornburgh when he was governor and again when Thornburgh was appointed U.S. Attorney General under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Green’s name became well-known on a national level during the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979, as he meted out information to reporters as Thornburgh’s spokesman.

King had lunch with Green about a month ago.

“He was always honest, always a straight shooter,” he said, “but he was also a very loyal Republican.”

Dennis Rickard, former Butler County Sheriff, said Tuesday that Green graduated from Butler High School in the 1960s.

The two became co-leaders of the Boy Scout troop that King belonged to as a boy.

Rickard said Green served as chief of the Order of the Arrow for the local Boy Scouts organization at that time, and as camp director at Camp Bucoco.

“He personified what Boy Scouts was about,” Rickard said. “He personified service to others and was always willing to give of himself.”

As a person, Rickard called Green “interesting.”

“He was very small in stature, but very astute and very politically inclined, even back in the ‘60s,” Rickard said.

He recalled Green as extremely motivated, even in high school.

“There was no doubt he was going to be a success, because of his demeanor and his constant work and striving to get ahead,” Rickard said.

He said Green used his expertise in the state Sheriffs Association as well.

According to a Monday article on Green on pennlive.com, Green graduated in 1969 from Point Park University, where he studied journalism.

He initially worked for a Pittsburgh radio station, where he met Thornburgh and began working for him in the political arena.

In 1987, he founded William J. Green and Associates, a Pittsburgh firm specializing in public affairs and strategic communications.

In Thornburgh’s gubernatorial cabinet, Green also served as Department of Transportation press secretary, deputy secretary for public liaison at the Department of Environmental Resources and executive director of the Thornburgh-Scranton inauguration.

Green also coordinated Thornburgh’s gubernatorial campaign in Western Pennsylvania.

The pennlive.com story stated that Green’s health began declining after he was struck by a jet ski in Florida.

It also revealed that Green was the recipient of kidneys from both his sister and late brother in recent times.

Rickard called Green a good friend.

“He is a person who is going to be missed in a lot of ways,” Rickard said.