A U.S. Navy fighter pilot, Voris was an Ace in World War II and was awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses, 11 Air Medals, three Presidential Unit Citations, and the Purple Heart.
In 1946, Adm. Chester Nimitz decided to create a special naval aviation team to increase sailor morale — and recruitment. He chose Capt. Voris to lead the team. Voris liked the name of a night club he saw advertised in a magazine, and named the team after the establishment: the Blue Angels. He recruited several pilots and got them off the ground quickly: the team put on its first air show on June 15, 1946, and it quickly became known for its spectacular aerobatic stunts.
“You fly as close together as a couple of feet,” Voris once said. “Every once in a while you do a little bump and so forth. People ask me, ‘How close do they fly?’ And I’ll say if we hit each other, it’s too close and if we don’t, we’re too far apart.” He retired from the Navy in 1963, and went on to be NASA’s spokesman during the Apollo moon missions. “Butch” Voris died August 9 at his home in Monterey, Calif. He was 85.