Jeffrey Anderson Burke

Jeffrey Anderson Burke, 75, departed this world on October 21, 2025, after a long fight with liver cancer. He was born in Waterbury, CT, on November 16, 1949, graduating from Driggs Grammar School and attending Wilby High School in Waterbury before moving to the great city of Boston to pursue his dreams. There, he attended the Franklin Institute of Photography and set up his own small business, Jeffrey Burke Photography. While photography was his passion, he also took a day job on the grounds crew at Boston University Medical Center (BUMC); former students may remember him in short shorts and roller skates, skating around the campus to water the plants. After BUMC, he was employed as a security guard at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), where he developed an appreciation of classical music. He loved interacting with the students, whom he believed were full of talent and promise and plans to set the world on fire. He was a confidante to many of them, offering a sympathetic ear, a joke, and sometimes advice. Even after leaving NEC, he would keep tabs on his favorite graduates and tell people about them with a sense of pride when they joined a major orchestra or landed a plum opera role. He even found love at NEC and that, along with some guidance and sheer force of will—friends and family members might call it stubbornness—inspired him to address and overcome a substance use disorder, although it eventually entailed moving to "godforsaken Pennsylvania." He discovered Rational Recovery and took to it so readily that he became an RR counselor, running meetings at Mass General for those who struggled with alcohol addiction. He also discovered an affinity for computers and technology, and parlayed that into a second career in IT, eventually working at Aramark HQ in Philadelphia as second-level help desk support. In this capacity, he met many employees throughout the tower and spent his spare time charming the Amish girls working at Reading Terminal Market, where he bought his daily shot of wheat grass. Later in retirement, he was a Door-Dasher to earn extra income, and doorbell cameras may have caught him in one of his jaunty hats making a delivery, although the short shorts had been retired.

He had a big personality, with a ready laugh and a wickedly sharp sense of humor, but was also supportive and unselfish and had a kind streak that he chose not to demonstrate openly. At the Medical Center, he befriended a cat that had given birth to kittens and smuggled the runt of the litter home on the subway inside his coat. The kitten imprinted on Jeffrey and followed him constantly for its entire life, much to his annoyance/amusement. He used his technology skills to transform a living room into a home movie theater so an elderly shut-in could watch her favorite movie projected on the wall. He had an incredible green thumb, transporting plants successfully across several homes and two states, and adopting the plants of an elderly couple whose home he co-purchased. "It takes a tough man to grow an African violet," he joked. His lush green home was testament to his care with living things. He enjoyed all kinds of technology, art and music, movies, meditation, tiramisu, making killer cream cheese brownies, and riding his beloved bike, Falkor.

He is preceded in death by his parents, William G. Burke and Evelyn Charlotte (Austin) Burke, sister Judi, and brothers Rodney and Phillip Burke. He is survived by his sister, Cheryl Burke, of Waterbury, CT, nephew Rashad Burke, of York, PA, and several other nieces and nephews. There are no funeral services; he would have hated them. In lieu of flowers, take time to appreciate some flowers or some art, eat a killer cream cheese brownie, and listen to Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues," or make a donation on Jeffrey's behalf to the American Cancer Society's liver cancer donation page.