Susan Howlet Butcher was an American dog musher, noteworthy as the second woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 1986, the second four-time winner in 1990, and the first to win four out of five sequential years.
14 Facts About Susan Butcher
2.
Susan Butcher is commemorated in Alaska by the Susan Butcher Day.
3.
Susan Butcher was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a lover of dogs and the outdoors.
4.
Susan Butcher completed secondary school at the Warehouse Cooperative School, then studied at Colorado State University, and ultimately became a veterinary technician.
5.
Susan Butcher spent two years working for Iditarod founder Joe Redington in exchange for dogs to build up her team.
6.
The more experienced Susan Butcher won the next race in 1986, and then proceeded to win again in 1987,1988, and 1990.
7.
Susan Butcher joins fellow four-time winners Martin Buser, Jeff King, Lance Mackey and Doug Swingley, Dallas Seavey and Rick Swenson who won five.
8.
Susan Butcher married fellow dog racer David Monson on September 2,1985.
9.
Susan Butcher held the Iditarod speed record from 1986 until 1992, breaking her own records in 1987 and 1990.
10.
In 2007, Susan Butcher was inducted into the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame as one of the five charter members in the inaugural class.
11.
On December 2,2005, Susan Butcher was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, which had manifested as a blood disorder three years earlier.
12.
Susan Butcher underwent chemotherapy at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and received a bone marrow transplant on May 17,2006, after the cancer went into remission.
13.
Susan Butcher died on August 5,2006, after fighting graft-versus-host disease and learning that the cancer had returned.
14.
On March 1,2008, Susan Butcher was honored by the State of Alaska when, just prior to the start of the 2008 Iditarod, Gov.