Earl Vincent Burton

EARL V. BURTON, a retired executive with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and a consultant with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), died in Bethesda, MD on January 17, 2023, after a brief illness. He was 95.

He was born at 1206 Munson Avenue in Topeka, KS, on March 29, 1927, to Dwight and Myrtle (Pottinger) Burton. He was the fifth son and seventh of nine children, all of whom were born in the house his father and uncle built. He often said that he couldn't have asked for better parents. His mother died of ovarian cancer when he was 18.

Earl attended Capitol Catholic High School in Topeka, where he played football and was Captain of the team his senior year. He graduated in 1945 and, before the actual ceremony, enlisted in the U.S. Navy, following his older brothers into the wartime military.

After his service, Earl entered the University of Kansas at Lawrence in 1947 under the GI Bill; he said that his older sister Barbara did all the enrollment paperwork and all he had to do was "show up." (All nine Burton children attended college.) While at KU, Earl was a member of the MU chapter of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and was the chapter's Polemarch his senior year. Because World War II had placed a hold on college enrollment, the membership had a wide age range; several members had been to school with his four older brothers. He graduated from KU in 1951 with a bachelor's degree in Botany.

Earl began a long career with FDA in 1953, retiring as Director of Investigations of the Boston District in 1985, after stops in Denver, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Seattle. In his retirement, Earl worked as a consultant, first for Irving Burton Associates in Washington in 1986, then he signed on with FAO the following year. Based in Rome, he conducted studies in multiple countries, including Brazil, India, Namibia, and Indonesia. He stepped down from FAO in 1995.

A longtime resident of Silver Spring, MD, Earl enjoyed being active, including memberships in ski clubs. Taking up golf in his 70's, he became obsessed with the game, often playing 18 holes well into his 90's. He had a lifelong love of watching NFL football; it was futile to try to contact him on Sunday afternoons during the fall, as he would be "at church."

He had an exceptional long-term memory, regaling friends and family with tales about growing up during the Depression, working summer jobs as a short order cook on the railroads in the Western U.S., toiling in a slaughterhouse, being in a segregated Navy, inspecting salmon plants in Alaska, skiing in Colorado in the 1950's, and more. As an African American, he was proud of his contributions to the Civil Rights movement: he was an early Freedom Rider and was one of the thousands of attendees at the March on Washington in 1963. He lived alone and was able to drive up until a few weeks before his death. He frequently wondered how he could be so lucky in life, despite his significant hearing loss, getting caught by DC speed cameras, and the inevitable iPhone upgrades.

Earl was the last surviving graduate of his high school class and the oldest surviving member of the MU chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi. Recently a friend arranged for him to receive a plaque noting this fact from the fraternity, which he proudly displayed in his home. He acknowledged that this award was, professionally or personally, the only one he had ever received.

He was predeceased by his older brothers Phillip, Curtis, John, and Irving, and by his sisters Marion Jones, Barbara Leal, and Susan Davidson. His marriage to Greta Clemens Burton ended in divorce.

His survivors include: two sons, Anthony Burton and his partner David Gleekel, of Rockville, MD, and Vincent Burton and his wife Laura of Wilmington, MA; two granddaughters, Adele of Portsmouth, NH, and Evelyn of Boston, MA; his beloved younger sister, Eleanor Burton Anderson and her husband John, of Washington, DC; and many nieces and nephews, who thought "Uncle Earl" was bigger than life.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the America Cancer Society. A memorial service is planned.