RADM Thomas E. Burke (1918 2009)
Rear Admiral Thomas E. Burke passed away on December 30th. Massachusetts Maritime Academy graduate (1939) was 91. He led a remarkable and distinguished life; at sea and ashore.
Thomas Edward Burke of Cohasset, Massachusetts passed away on December 30 at South Shore Hospital from complications of pneumonia. Rear Admiral Burke was 91 years of age and leaves behind his wife of 62 years Mary Rita Gilligan Burke. Tom led a remarkable and distinguished life. He was a decorated Merchant Marine officer of WWII, an avid sportsman, a leading producer for New England Financial for over 50 years and the father of seven children.
RADM Burke from an early age; he showed a natural propensity for life at sea. While a senior in high school he served a stint as a crew member on a Grand Banks fishing trawler. He entered the Massachusetts Nautical School (Massachusetts Maritime Academy) in 1937 and trained aboard the legendary school ship Nantucket. Upon graduating in 1939, Admiral Burke went to sea with the United Fruit Company serving in all positions from Able Seaman to Ship Master by 1944. Tom had a distinguished war record in WWII and was one of the youngest ship masters of that era. In the war, he served in many capacities in the South Pacific, Guadalcanal, and the Philippines.
His wartime service included surviving two torpedo attacks, one in May 1942 in which he was credited with saving the lives of three other people, including an 11 year old girl after floating in the water for 20 hours in the Gulf of Mexico. In the second attack, a year later, while on the SS Cape Nedick, off the coast of South Africa, he was blown off the bridge to the deck below, survived unhurt and continued on with the badly damaged ship finally arriving in New York with 50 feet of the hull still open. In March of 1945, he was in command of the Black Warrior as it was escorted by Nazi minesweepers through the minefields of the Wesser River, being the first American ship to enter Germany since 1939.
In 1947, Burke came ashore and went on to a very successful career as a top producer with New England Financial from 1948 to 1998, as a financial service and sales professional, as part of the Baystate Financial Agency. In 1957, he was elected President of the New England Financial Leaders Association. He was a Lifetime Member of New England Financial Leaders and The Million Dollar Roundtable, and earned the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation in 1965. At one time, he had achieved roughly 2000 consecutive weeks of new business production. He was a countywide leader in that category, and was most proud of that standard. He also had a successful property and casualty business through Brewer & Lord Co., starting in 1962.
At the same time he began sixty-year tenure of service to his beloved alma mater, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where he is perhaps best known as the voluntary Placement Director. For over twenty years he assisted hundreds of alumni with seagoing and shore side job placement. He has served as Alumni President, Bulletin Editor, Foundation Trustee, Board of Visitors Trustee, and he was named "Outstanding Alumnus" in 1965. In 1982, Admiral Burke was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by MMA at Commencement.
Burke also served the Boston Marine Society as Trustee since 1955 and as President from 1976 to 1979. In 2002, the U.S. Maritime Administration appointed Tom to his present rank, of Rear Admiral, for his many years of service to the industry. Tom and some of his sailing friends, looking for a way for young children in Cohasset to learn to sail, started the Cohasset Sailing Club in 1960 with a small fleet of donated sail boats and the use of a piece of harbor front property owned by the government. The Cohasset Sailing Club is thriving today with over 200 members and a reputation for turning out the best sailors in the area.
In addition to his wife, Mary Rita, and his sister Alice Draine of Boston, Tom is survived by daughter Joanna of Malibu, CA; son Thomas W. and his wife Gail of Mobile, AL; son-in-law Dr. James Colville (surviving spouse of daughter Maryadele, d.); son Christopher and his wife Marguerite of Lake Bluff, IL; son John and his wife Anne of Houston, TX and 9 grandchildren. His beloved daughters Patricia, Maryadele and Andrea preceded Tom in death, as did his four brothers, John, William, Robert and David.
Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, January 9, 2010 at 10 AM in St. Anthonys Church, Cohasset. Visiting hours Thursday, Jan 7th from 5-8 pm and Friday, Jan 8th from 5-8 pm at the McNamara-Sparrell Funeral Home, 1 Summer St. (across from St. Anthonys Church), Cohasset, MA.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the RADM Thomas E. Burke Sea Term Scholarship at Massachusetts Maritime Academy; payable to:" MMA AA Scholarship Fund" with the notation "RADM Thomas E. Burke Scholarship Fund" in the "memo" portion. Checks should be mailed to William McMcClellan, MMA 63; 10 Horizon Circle, Chatham, MA 02633.