Brenda Joyce Butscher, Garrett County Commissioner

Brenda Butscher (1940-2023) is the first and only woman to be elected to the office of Garrett County Commissioner, serving as a commissioner from 1990 to 1994. Brenda was a leader and active in the Republican Party on the local and state as well as national levels. She also served as the executive director of Hospice for Garrett County for 25 years and was the owner and president of the Oakland Radio Station Corporation. Other community involvement included her serving as Chair of the Garrett County Liquor Control Board and on the boards of the Garrett County Memorial Hospital, Deep Creek Lake Advisory Board, Community Action Agency, Yough River Advisory Board and Local Emergency Planning Committee.

Brenda served in a leadership position in numerous other local and statewide community and civic organizations. Among her honors was her recognition in 1994 by the Maryland Federation of Business and Professional Women as “Garrett County’s Woman of the Year” and her 1997 induction into the Garrett County Commission’s “Women’s Hall of Fame.”