Hobert W. Burns

Dear Patsie and family,
My first job after college was working in the President's Office at SJSU when Dr. Burns was president--that was really starting at the top! Almost 40 years later, and after much time spent working in education, I know that he was the best college administrator and leader with whom I've ever worked. And I really wish I'd bought that gullwing from him!!
With much sympathy but also the deepest admiration for Dr. Burns' life and work,
Stefanie (Quartana)...

Hobert Burns and his wife Patsy (his bride as he like to call her) have been friends with my family and me since the fall of 1958. He and Francis were both serving on the faculty at Rutgers University at the time. I remember the date so exactly as it was shortly before our first daughter, Aylette, was born.

Fast forward to 1975 when Hobert invited Francis, my husband, to become Dean of the College of Education at S.J.S.U. He accepted and we moved to Palo Alto and wonderful years in...

I first met Bert Burns in 1963 when he was Dean of the College of Education at Hofstra University in New York. He recruited me from the University of Illinois to chair the Department of Elementary Education at Hofstra. During my two years at Hofstra, Bert gave me unconditional support as I worked to build and staff the program in elementary education.
In 1970, when Bert had become Acting President of San Jose State University, he encouraged me to come to SJSU as a research...

Bert Burns and I were enrolled in our respective doctoral programs at Stanford University in the early 1950's. I didn't see him for a long time after he (and I) received our degrees. He was considered one of the outstanding doctoral candidates of that time and after. Later, he came to San José State and, not too much later, he persuaded Francis Villemain to come as the Dean of our of School of Education. Two major and splendid appointments to our university. The University and School...

I worked with a lot of people in my almost 35 years at SJSU, but Dr. Burns was one of the most memorable. I rarely use the word "prioritize," but whenever I do I feel him looking over my shoulder with disapproval! As Faculty Emerita recently retired from SJSU Library, I appreciate his support over the years. He will be both missed and remembered by many.

The hole Hobert leaves in my family's universe is hard to characterize. The Burns family has been so intertwined with ours, the Villemains. Particularly, once we made that final move to California when Hobert brought my father, Francis Villemain, to SJSU in 1975. We lived around the corner, then. All the jokes, the gimlets, the philosophizing, political arguments, the perennial fight over who would pay the restaurant bills. With my own father's death in 1992, Patsy and Hobert became even...

To the Burns Family:

I expressed heartfelt sympathy on the passing of Hobert. I've only known him for a short period but he was always polite and all smiles despite his trials.
May he rest in perfect peace.

To my brother who I loved so much. You will reside in my heart for ever

Charlie

I send my love and sympathy to my aunt Patsie, cousins Carol, Janifer and Charlie. Also to my father Charles my uncles brother.

On a personal level, my uncle was a man I respected for his educational accomplishments, military service and athletic abilities. Not mentioned and as told to me by my father Charles, his brother was a very good baseball player in high school and I believe he said he and Jerry Colman were the best shortstop and second base combo around in the day.

In...