Butch Clay Teacher

Teacher, Butch Clay, comes to Cherokee Creek with a Master of Arts in English from Clemson University and a B.A. in English from the College of Georgia. He also spent a year in theological seminary at Emory University and has recently completed coursework towards a Master of Science in Information Design and Communication at Southern Polytechnic State University in Atlanta.

Butch grew up in middle Georgia, where he discovered a love of nature that led him to serve in many positions in outdoor and adventure-based education including; working as an Instructor for troubled youth with Outward Bound in the Florida Everglades, and as a Whitewater River Guide in both Montana and Alaska. His life journey also took him around the world - to Europe, North Africa, Southeast Asia and South America. Eventually he gravitated back home, to work as a river Guide and Whitewater photographer on the Chattooga River in South Carolina, where he has lived for 23 years. A passion for outdoor photography has allowed him to study the wild Chattooga back country (near the Cherokee Creek campus) up close. Butch loves to share what he has learned about topography, nature and human history from his travels. One way of sharing his experiene is as the author of two books, A Guide to the Chattooga River and a second that is in the works. Many of the photos that you see on our website were taken by Butch.

According to Butch, “I had the good fortune to grow up running up and down the creeks and bottomlands of some of the last wild country left in the eastern United States! I am excited to translate my knowledge of the wilderness and the outdoor skills that I have learned into life lessons that will help our students gain confidence. I want to help them feel solid ground beneath their feet or, as our mission states, to understand “what is real and true about themselves and the world around them.” I am glad—and proud—to get the chance to give something back.”

Butch is married to Sally, a South Carolina native, and they have a two year old son, year Benjamin, and he added, “Becoming a father has helped me see that a child is both the greatest gift and the greatest challenge we can ever expect to have in this life. I consider it my good fortune to work with the children at Cherokee Creek.”