John Burruto

1938 - 2026

John Burruto

Amherst, MA - Mark Antony's funeral oration from Julius Caesar begins:

"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears…

With those words, recited entirely from memory, our father, John Burruto, secured his position as principal of Amherst Regional Junior High School in 1974. During his job interview, a student on the panel asked about his background in theater and what he most loved to perform. Without hesitation, he answered: Shakespeare.

Then he delivered Mark Antony's funeral speech.

The performance, and the conviction behind it, helped win him the job.

At the time, John was a young husband and father from Rochester, New York, still early in his career in public education. Amherst was seeking someone to bring order and vision to a struggling junior high school. Shakespeare, and an actor's memory, helped bring him there.

That moment began a 52-year life in Amherst, Massachusetts, where John and his wife Sylvia raised their two sons, Justin and David, built enduring friendships, and became woven into the civic life of the college town.

For more than two decades as principal of the Amherst Regional Junior High School, John helped educate thousands of students. Many remained in touch with him long after they left the school, seeking advice, sharing news of their lives, or simply enjoying his company. He believed deeply in public education and in the responsibility to guide young people toward lives of purpose.

John loved the work of building a school where students could thrive - safe, challenged, and supported. More than once he made extraordinary efforts to change the course of a student's life for the better. Investing in young people was the central mission of his life.

His own path had been unlikely. Born in 1938 and raised on the wrong side of the tracks in Rochester, he developed a lifelong hunger for knowledge and an enthusiasm for widely varied pursuits. In high school he was a championship football player and wrestler, but also a dedicated actor and singer.

At seventeen, immediately after graduating in 1956, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. In the Marines, John competed in football and wrestling on regimental teams at Camp Lejeune and served on a Mediterranean tour, including deployment during Operation Blue Bat in Beirut, Lebanon in 1958. Even then, theater remained close to his heart. He performed in community theater productions while in service-and, as family lore suggests, perhaps to impress a young woman.

After his discharge, he returned to Rochester and enrolled at the University of Rochester, where he earned both bachelor's and master's degrees and met the love of his life, Sylvia. They married in 1963.

Adventure soon called and in 1965 John and Sylvia moved to Los Angeles, where he pursued acting while teaching English in the Los Angeles Unified School District in the Watts neighborhood. He appeared in plays and commercials and embraced the creative energy of Southern California. Their first son, Justin, was born there in 1967.

Family obligations eventually brought them back to Rochester, where John continued working with at-risk youth. Their second son, David, was born there in 1973.

Soon afterward John sought new opportunities-and Amherst answered.

Beginning in 1974 he served 22 years as principal of the Amherst Regional Junior High School, becoming known as a stern but deeply engaged disciplinarian, a gifted storyteller, and one of the town's most recognizable public servants.

Beyond the schoolhouse, John's curiosity and energy rarely rested. He explored the rivers and streams of New England by canoe and was an avid fly fisherman, delighting in the analytical challenge of observing the water, the insects, and how best to land the trout. He developed a fascination with the flora and fauna of New England, even endeavoring in owling on some winter nights, quietly listening for them in area forests.

In 1987, John was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to study the life of St. Francis of Assisi and medieval culture at the University of Siena in Italy under Professor William Cook of SUNY Geneseo. For six weeks, he and his colleagues traveled through Umbria and Tuscany studying the saint's life and the era he transformed. It was fitting that John chose Francis-a figure who sought to reform and renew the institution he served.

John brought that same reformist energy to his next challenge when he became principal of Haverhill High School in Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1996. There he strengthened academic and athletic programs, fought for long-neglected facilities, improved financial controls, and worked to hire talented teachers and staff.

A Marine always, he also founded the Haverhill High School U.S. Marine Corps Junior ROTC program, which continues today and has grown into one of the most respected programs in the country. In 2022 John returned to Haverhill as the program's honored guest for the Marine Corps birthday celebration.

After leaving Haverhill in 2000, John continued contributing to education, working with school districts in Windsor, Connecticut and Nashua, New Hampshire. Even in retirement, he returned to the classroom serving as an adjunct professor at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he taught professional development courses for educators.

He was also active in community life as a member of the Rotary Club of Amherst and as a founder of Circolo Italiano, an organization dedicated to celebrating and sharing Italian culture in western Massachusetts.

He was preceded in death by Sylvia, his wife of many decades and the love of his life. He is survived by his sons Justin and David, their spouses Michael and Star, and his granddaughter Daisy, all of whom will miss his boisterous laugh and amused smile during a particularly good story.

There are countless stories about John Burruto-some factual, some exaggerated, many improved in the retelling as he would have preferred. He was a Marine, a teacher, a principal, a fisherman, a scholar, a performer, and above all, a devoted husband, father, and friend. But for now, to borrow once more from Mark Antony:

Our hearts are in the coffin there with Caesar, and we must pause till they come back to us.