Robert E. Burson

Burson, Robert E.
Honeoye Falls: The family of Robert E. Burson regrets to announce that another soldier and citizen of the Greatest Generation passed away on August 27th, 2008.
Bob Burson was born to Arthur and Marjorie Burson of Rochester, NY, on November 22nd, 1924. As a boy he represented the Boy Scouts of America at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair, and while there learned of the German invasion of Poland which precipitated World War II. He graduated from Honeoye Falls School in 1942 and joined the 101st Regiment of the 26th Infantry Division, US Army, in 1943.
In June, 1944, Bob's 180th Field Artillery Battalion was part of the first Army division to land in Normandy directly from the USA. For two weeks, while the Division waited for its heavy equipment to arrive, Bob was a volunteer in the Red Ball Express, a vast improvised effort to supply the rapid Allied advance toward the liberation of Paris.
After a few weeks, Bob's unit was sent to Alsace-Lorraine to join Patton's Third Army. In the middle of a Christmas night, they were awakened with news of the German counter-attack in the Battle of the Bulge. They were sent north to relieve the besieged General Anthony McAuliffe's 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne, after McAuliffe's famous reply "nuts" to the German demand for surrender. The battle lasted through the bitter cold of winter 1944, into February 1945, and the last offensive of the Third Reich was defeated.
In the aftermath of the war in Europe, Bob was part of a small unit assigned to the OSS (later the CIA) to guard the Nazis' looted European art treasures hidden in a salt mine at Bad Aussée in the Austrian Alps.
Bob returned home in 1946, and family history records that he spent the next year in solitude and dejection. Like many veterans, he never complained nor even spoke of his distress. He recovered to attend Syracuse University on the G.I. Bill and graduated with a Bachelors degree in Business Studies.
In 1949, he married Jane Virginia Tenny, and their marriage endured fifty-nine years until his death. Bob and Ginny had five daughters, of whom four survived to become mothers, nurses, teachers and pillars of their communities.
Bob was President of the State Bank of Honeoye Falls for two decades in the era when banks were catalysts for prosperity and responsible stewards of their depositors wealth. His passions included art, jazz and auto racing, and he competed more than once in SCCA meetings against such notables as Paul Newman. He retired in 1979 and moved with Ginny to Fripp Island, South Carolina.
In retirement, Bob was an avid traveler, intrepid computer hobbyist, dedicated Syracuse supporter, auto mechanic, photographer, home renovator and mentor to his children and grandchildren. He survived various hazards of advancing age until his last hospitalization in June, 2008.
With his prognosis worsening, Bob made his loved ones a final gift by calmly accepting his fate and resolutely declaring his time in this world to be at an end. He passed peacefully, surrounded by his family.
We could all wish for such a life.
He is survived by Ginny, his spouse and best friend of six decades; daughters Lynne, Joan, Marilyn and Lorraine and their husbands; granddaughters Katie, Melanie, Sarah and Mary Jane; and many other family members.
Bob's family is grateful for the expert medical care, friendship and compassion he and they received from the staff at Strong Memorial.
A memorial reception for Bob's wider circle of friends and relatives will be held at 127 Boughton Hill Road, Honeoye Falls, on Saturday, August 30th, from 2 PM until 5 PM. Light refreshments will be provided and accepted.