If you were to visit Butay’s office, you would quickly gather that she has an appreciation
for the ocean. Right below a poster featuring a vivid sunset over tumultuous waves
sits a model lighthouse made of wood. What it lacks in real light, it makes up for
in exquisite detail. Butay says that crafts are one of her favorite hobbies outside
of the classroom. “I’ve been working on a dollhouse for the last year. Getting creative
is what I like best.”
Lenore Butay grew up in Maryland and went to Grinnel College in Iowa, then decided
to go to nursing school at Crayton University. After graduating as a nurse, she got
married, and she and her husband moved to Tulsa so her husband could go to ORU. It
was here that she began working at City of Faith as a nurse, eventually moving on
to get her masters in nursing at OU. It wasn’t long before she started doing clinical
full-time.
“I felt like nursing was a call to help people,” she recalls. “Isaiah talks about
helping the poor and homeless. During my years working at City of Faith and then ORU,
I have appreciated being with people who are able to pray with and be generous toward
the needy. The merging of faith and medicine is truly in practice.”
After she was hired to teach nursing at ORU, Butay has come to realize what a great
thing diversity is in a school. “Instead of teaching primarily white upper-class students,
I am teaching all ethnicities and socioeconomic classes,” she says. “This is essential
because it means we can reach more people groups out there. It’s wonderful.”
Why choose nursing? Butay says it appealed to her because it is a highly flexible
occupation, in other words, there are many different job opportunities to be had with
a nursing degree. “As Christians, we ought to make a special effort to help people,”
she insists. And help people she has, as a nurse and as a teacher. She emphasizes
to her students the importance of learning how to study. “It’s all diligence,” she
notes, “You have to know your craft well if you want to make a difference.”
