Peter "Mr. B" Burrows

 

 

On December 15, 2016, Olympic and World coach Peter Burrows was posthumously elected to the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame Class of 2017. He is the lone inductee for 2017. The ceremony for his induction will be celebrated at the 2018 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in San Jose, CA. Here is the press release announcing his induction issued by U.S. Figure Skating on December 15, 2016:

U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame Class of 2017 press release announcement

On May 22, 2015, Peter Burrows was posthumously inducted into the Professional Figure Skaters Coaches Hall of Fame. The PSA Coaches Hall of Fame Award is the highest award of recognition by the Professional Skaters Association, recognizing a lifetime of accomplishment in coaching. His wife, Katherine Healy Burrows, accepted the award on Peter's behalf. The text of her acceptance speech at the PSA Awards Banquet is reprinted on the Obituary page of this website (click on the Obituary tab on the left side of this page).  

Peter Burrows was a prominent World and Olympic figure skating coach. Born in Manchester, England, to parents Mary and Ernest, he attended St. Anne's School in Crumpsall, where he served as an altar boy in the Roman Catholic Church. His first skating teacher was the eminent Gladys Hogg; he went on to train in London and Davos, Switzerland with the legendary Arnold Gerschwiler during the main part of his competitive career. He was a former British champion at various levels, as well as a European and World team member. Rink manager and lifelong friend Kenn Bailey gave Peter his first teaching job in England at Altrincham. His very first student there was the young Verona Tosh, who went on to have a distinguished British pair skating career with Ken Babbington. Peter Burrows emigrated to the United States in 1966 at the invitation of Hans Gerschwiler, and initially worked in the South Mountain Arena in New Jersey. Burrows trained a luminous constellation of successful figure skaters during his fifty year coaching career including, among others, Dorothy Hamill, Suna Murray, Gale and Joel Fuhrman, Charlene von Saher, Anita Thornfeldt, Allison Oki, Elaine Zayak, Rocky Marval, Calla Urbanski, Ralph Burghart, Michael Chack, Mark Mitchell, Jason Briggs, Dana Mednick, Jason Dungjen, Kyoko Ina, Lenny Raney, Joelle Forte, Tamar Katz, Christine Mozer and Ella Mizrahi. His impressive teaching record included producing 14 Olympians, 26 World team members and numerous United States national medalists. Burrows coached at Sport-O-Rama in Monsey, New York, where he was the executive director of figure skating for over thirty-five years. Burrows was a Professional Skaters Guild master rated coach, inducted into the PSGA Hall of Fame and a recipient of the Imperial Professional Skating Union Gold Medal Award for training a world champion. He judged numerous professional skating competitions, and mentored many younger coaches. Burrows simultaneously pursued several business enterprises, operating figure skating schools throughout the New York region, including the Peter Burrows Skating Center at Iceland in New Hyde Park for 19 years. He consulted for ice arenas in the tri-state New York area, as well as in Florida and Scotland. In his spare time, Peter loved to play golf and squash.The owner of Sport-O-Rama, Barry Wolkon, gave Peter a loving and happy skating home for many, many years, where Peter was able to achieve the greatest accomplishments of his teaching career. Barry was an integral part of Peter's professional trajectory here in the United States. But above and beyond that, Barry provided Peter with unfailing love and support throughout his illness, and brought Peter and his wife Katherine great comfort, especially during Peter's final days.

The outpouring of gratitude and love from his friends and former students upon his passing has been inexpressibly moving. Many of his students went on to be successful in fields other than skating, and attribute much of their discipline and work ethic to their time spent training with him. A number of other students became renowned skating coaches in their own right. In an icenetwork.com article in 2008 (link below), Liz Leamy wrote that "this group includes Robin Wagner, who taught Sarah Hughes, the 2002 Olympic champion; Lori Nichol, the acclaimed international choreographer; Ken Congemi, the coaching partner of Frank Carroll who works with Bebe Liang, the top-ranked U.S. ladies contender; Elaine Zayak, who teaches Kristine Gong, the 2009 North Atlantic junior ladies silver medalist; and Tracy Doyle Lund, the former coach of Katrina Hacker, the top-seeded U.S. ladies contender." Coach Billy Thompson described him on Facebook as "a coach's coach." Former pupil Tom Incantalupo is a master-rated, PSA Level V national and international coach, regional IJS technical specialist and now supervises his own stable of talented and accomplished competitive figure skaters. In September 2013, Peter's final guest teaching engagement, one which gave him great joy, was at the invitation of Incantalupo, and took place in Minneapolis at the Braemar Arena.

Peter passed away on April 9, 2014, after a valiant struggle with a brief illness, teaching up until three weeks before his death. He was 75. He is survived by his wife of 17 years, coach and former ballerina Katherine Healy Burrows.

Peter Burrows became an American citizen in 1997. He left a deep and lasting legacy in his students over the years, and made a significant contribution to the sport of figure skating in the United States through his development of American skaters at all levels.

 

 

Born: Jul 27, 1938 in Manchester, England, UK

Died: Apr 09, 2014 in Port Washington, NY, USA

About: Sat on various boards in the past including: Board member of the United States Figure Skating Association, USFSA Board member of Professional Skaters Guild of America, PSGA Board member of the Imperial Professional Skating Union, IPSU Member of the Board of the USFSA Selections Committee

Obituary

On May 22, 2015, Peter Burrows was posthumously inducted into the Professional Skaters Association Coaches Hall of Fame. His wife, Katherine Healy Burrows, accepted the award on his behalf. This is the text of her acceptance speech, delivered at the PSA awards banquet:

Thank you. This is amazing. Peter very much believed in and supported the work and mission of the PSA. He would have been so overwhelmed and humbled by this. Thank you to the voting members of the Hall of Fame Committee and to the entire membership of the Professional Skaters Association for this very great honor you have bestowed upon him.

When the rink manager Ken Bailey gave Peter his first ever teaching job at the rink in Altrincham, England, Peter sat in the stands at the beginning waiting for someone to ask him for a lesson. He talked about that a lot and never forgot it. He never took for granted that he had students to teach. I guess everything turned out okay.

Another thing people may not know about Peter is that he loved the ballet. When he was competing as a young man, he took classes with the Royal Ballet. When he and his pair partner and first wife, Valerie, began teaching in England, they would bring their students to see performances at Covent Garden. Peter was largely revered as a jump coach, but he had a deep appreciation for the artistic side of our sport.

I would like to acknowledge the role of Barry Wolkon in Peter's career. Barry is the owner of the Sport-O-Rama rink in Monsey, NY, where Peter worked. Barry gave Peter a happy and loving home for more than thirty-five years where Peter did his best work. Barry was there for Peter up until the very end, giving him unfailing love and support throughout his illness.

Peter came to this country in 1966 to work for Hans Gerschwiler, and spent the next 48 years in service to American figure skating. He taught up until three weeks before his death. Throughout his life, Peter did a lot of good things for so many people. He was extremely generous in sharing coaching duties and provided many people with work throughout his career.

They say "the show must go on," and it does go on, but the show doesn't always go on with the same people in it. In Peter's case, the show goes on in and through the lives of the several skating generations of students he taught here in the United States, and the many American coaches he mentored.

My last takeaway from Peter's final days was to realize what a beautiful privilege and gift it is to have your health, and be able to get up and go to work and to teach--even if it happens to be cold and dark and damp and very early in the morning on some occasions, or late at night in the ballet studio for me. We are all so very lucky to have that. It was the most heartbreaking experience of my life to watch that slowly being taken from Peter as he grew too frail to work and it was a truly devastating loss for him, because he loved it more than anything.

I wish he were here for this. He would be so profoundly honored by this recognition from his colleagues whom he admired and respected and worked with for so many years. But Peter and  I were very close. I feel like if I know about this and I am here, then it means he knows about it and he is here too. Therefore, on behalf of both Peter and myself, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.

 

 

 

Obituary links and news articles:

U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame Class of 2017 press release

PSA Hall of Fame article

Newsday obituary

Williston Times • New Hyde Park Herald Courier • Great Neck News • Roslyn Times • Manhasset Times

Legacy.com obituary

Condolences Guest Book

Katherine's tribute to Peter on the first anniversary of his passing

Ballet Alert: Ballet Obituaries and Memorials

Announcement on Figure Skating Universe forum: http://www.fsuniverse.net/forum/index.php?threads/peter-burrows-passes-away.92058/

Ice Skating International article

Icenetwork article

Icenetwork/Tamar Katz article

Lenny Raney article

Jaclyn Ward Vargo article

Israeli Figure Skating Federation article

Iceland's tribute to Peter on Twitter with retweet of Katherine's first anniversary tribute photo

Katherine's tribute to Peter on the Congressional Jewels website

Katherine's page on Facebook

There are tributes to Peter throughout Katherine's public page on Facebook; please follow the above link. There are many photos in an album on that page entitled "Peter," with additional photos added to her Timeline on an ongoing basis.