Ben "Burke" Wall

1944 - 2021

Ben "Burke" Wall
Savannah, GA
Ben "Burke" Wall, died March 1, 2021 in Candler Hospital from complications of COVID-19. He was 76. He was born September 9, 1944 in the old Telfair Hospital. He was the son of Albert Martin Wall and Essie Burke Wall. He attended Pooler Elementary School and was a 1962 graduate of Groves High School. After stints at Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College and Brewton-Parker College, he eventually graduated from the University of Georgia with a B.S. in Dairy Production in 1968. While in college, his summer job was mowing grass on a Ford tractor at Fort Pulaski. Burke was an avid Georgia Bulldog fan.
In high school, Burke was an active member of the Future Farmers of America and took great pride in showing his prize-winning Guernsey cattle at the Coastal Empire Fair.
Burke was an active sportsman. He was known for hunting quail, dove and turkey. Burke loved his dogs and they loved him. He was an enthusiastic deep-sea fisherman aboard his boat "Trashman". His talents were widely recognized in many tournaments along the East Coast.
Burke and his Trashman fishing team consistently won or placed in the Annual Savannah Sport Fishing Club Blue Water Tournament. In 2019, he won the Edisto Beach South Carolina Governor's Cup Tournament and put a 549-pound blue marlin on the dock at the Mid Atlantic 500 the same year earning him second place.
He grew up on a family dairy farm on Dean Forest Road. While at A.B.A.C., his roommate and he would drive his convertible Impala on the dirt roads, looking for bird dogs on the farmer's porches. They would coax the dogs into the car and go quail hunting on the surrounding farms. They got to know which dogs were better than others. One good dog would wait for them at the mailbox. One day when they returned a particularly good dog, the farmer was waiting for them. "You boys been hunting my dog?" "Yessir" they sheepishly replied. "That's okay, he's a good one. You always bring him back home. There are two coveys in the back corner in the field. Have at'em." He had excellent dogs from his teenage years through the present. His current three English Pointers were staggered in ages and were trained by Burke and his son Ben. They were broke to wing and shot and as steady as a rock. His retriever was Gauge, a 4-year-old English Cocker. He hunted his property on a custom Jeep with two tiers of elevated seats and dog boxes below the third row of seats. Burke was the owner of Black Creek Plantation in Bryan County and Spring Mill Plantation in Jenkins County.
He and his then wife Alice Keller were the owners of Superior Sanitation Services. Burke and Alice eventually sold that company to Waste Management, and then he founded Atlantic Waste Services in Pooler in 1999.
He was a member of the Savannah Sport Fishing Club, Savannah Yacht Club, The Chatham Club, The Rotary Club of Savannah, and several professional organizations.
He is survived by his fiancé' Laura Braun; his son Ben Burke Wall, Jr. and his wife Kenlea and their three sons, Burke (6), Kenny (5) and Keller (3); his daughter Allison Keller Wall and her husband Jeffrey Creswell and their three children, Lilly (8), Wade (5) and Jackson (4); his brother Dr. Albert Martin Wall, III; his sister Mildred Wall Tuck (Horace) of Mount Vernon, Georgia, and her daughter Beth Tuck Powell (Andy) and their daughter Ella, and their son Scott Tuck (Lori) and their daughter Sarah Elizabeth and son Andrew; and many beloved cousins.
He was a devoted father and grandfather, and leaves behind many friends who shared his love of the outdoors.
Visitation will be 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., Thursday, March 4, 2021 at Fox & Weeks, Hodgson Chapel.
Graveside Service will be 4:00 p.m., Friday, March 5, 2021 in the Greenwich section of Bonaventure Cemetery.
Pallbearers will be Kyle Clark, Dexter Elliott, Billy Exley, Mike McCullough, Mike Mobley, Gil Stacy, Mike Thompson and Scott Tuck.
In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to The Savannah Sport Fishing Club, P.O. Box 1072, Savannah, GA 31402 (ssfc.org).
Savannah Morning News
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