John C. "Jack" Burrill

Jack (John) Burrill passed away September 25, 2025, in Oconomowoc WI from prostate cancer at the age of 89.

Jack was born June 20, 1936, in Plymouth, WI, to Emmabelle and Clair Burrill. He graduated from Plymouth High School and attended Lakeland University where he majored in mathematics and was a two-way starter in football as both an offensive lineman and linebacker. He served as defensive captain for three years and is remembered for scoring the winning touchdown in a championship game after recovering a fumble. In 1981 he was elected to the Lakeland University Athletics Hall of Fame.

After observing him helping his teammates through their math courses, his coach advised him to go into teaching. In 1961 he began his career as a mathematics teacher at Whitnall High School in Hales Corners, WI, in 1961 where he also coached football and basketball as well as serving as advisor to MU Alpha Theta, a mathematics honors society, and mentoring the Whitnall mathematics team.

He earned a master's in mathematics education from Colorado State University - Fort Collins and became involved in mathematics education at both the state and national levels. Jack was chosen to attend the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation's Institute on High School Mathematics at Princeton University in 1985 where he focused on developing mathematical modeling activities.

In 1987 he received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching and was recognized by the Wisconsin Mathematics Council as a Distinguished Mathematics Educator. He retired from Whitnall in 1996, worked for the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research at the University of Wisconsin - Madison until 2001, then spent several years teaching preservice students in the College of Education at Michigan State University.

Jack was an author for several large curriculum projects including Data Driven Mathematics through the American Statistical Association, and Mathematics in Context, a middle school curriculum developed in partnership with mathematics educators from the Freudenthal University at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands and from the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research.

He led professional development workshops around the United States, helping teachers shift their practice to build students' abilities to reason and make sense of mathematics.

Jack met his wife Gail when she joined the Whitnall High School mathematics faculty in 1963, and they taught together until they both left Whitnall in 1996. They have lived in Hales Corners since 1968, where they raised two boys, John (Janice Braisted) and Matthew (Donelle Burrill). He is survived by four grandsons - Nathaniel, Jacob, Thomas and Brady - and one great-grandson, Bearett, his brother Clair Burrill (Denise), sister Nancy Brandt and sister in-law Beverly Burrill (late William).

Jack's passion was hunting pheasants with his German wirehair dog, and he enjoyed hiking, cross-country skiing and whitewater canoeing with the family.

Jack was also a devoted grandpa who enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren outdoors and was an enthusiastic supporter of their various sporting activities across the country. He taught his sons, his grandchildren, and his students to care for and respect others, to value their opinions, to be responsible for one's actions and to live a life that embodied hard work with time for play.

A Funeral Mass will be held at St. Mary Catholic Faith Community Church, 9520 W. Forest Home Ave, Hales Corners, WI 53130 on Saturday, November 15, 2025 at 11 am. A gathering will be held at the church from 10 am to 10:45 am.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to St Jude Children's Research Hospital.