Bro. Gary Burr, SVD
By Bro. Dennis Newton, SVD
With the exception of butcher, baker, or candlestick maker, Gary Burr did pretty much everything else: teacher, counselor, coach, novice master, director of Brother formation, dean of students, provincial councilor, and parish youth minister. Those were his professional assignments.
Gary, or Bruno, if you are of a certain vintage, was also a mentor to generations of young 
Brothers, a friend to gang members who were trying to get their lives together, and a respected confrere who was on the verge of becoming an elder in the community.
Gary was born in Garnavillo, Iowa, a small town about ten miles west of the Mississippi River and fifty miles north of Dubuque. After high school, Gary entered the Brother postulancy at Techny. When asked what kind of work assignment he would like, Gary chose the farm, the mechanic shop, and lastly, the office. Predictably, superiors gave him his third choice, office work.
After his first vows in May 1960, now Brother Bruno was assigned to work in the mechanic’s shop and the boiler room. He also had the opportunity to do a couple of short stints on the farm at East Troy. In August 1962, Techny’s rector, Father Chester Nowicki SVD, called Bruno to his office. To Bruno’s surprise, he was told that he was being sent to college at DePaul University to study accounting. That was a big deal!
For the first two years, Bruno commuted to DePaul from Techny, but after the second year, he was given permission to live at St. Anselm Parish on Chicago’s South Side. While he continued with school, he began working with inner-city, African American youth. This opened up a whole new world for Bruno and ignited a spark that would never die.
After perpetual vows in May 1966, Bruno was allowed to enter graduate school to study counseling at DePaul, another big step, not just for Bruno, but also for Brothers who would follow. For the next several years, Bruno taught at the Brother Candidate School at Techny, then at the minor seminary in East Troy, Wisconsin.
After putting the Brother Formation Program on solid ground in the United States, Bruno was transferred to the Philippines, where he brought his many talents and deep convictions to the task of charting a new course for Brothers there.
In 1988, Bruno became the first director of Wendelin House in Washington, D.C., a new program for Brother candidates and Brothers in temporary vows. A few years later, he returned to Divine Word College in Epworth, Iowa, to become dean of students.
In 1991, after working for decades to improve the quality of Brother formation here and throughout the Society, Bruno was weary of the struggle. He requested a leave of absence. He wanted to step back a bit in order to gain some perspective and reevaluate his own vocation. After working for two years as a social worker in Dubuque, Bruno decided to return to active status and commit himself to direct ministry with youth. To mark this new beginning, he reverted to the name he used among his family and friends before entering the Society, Gary Burr.
Gary eagerly accepted an assignment at St. Elizabeth Church in Chicago, where he enthusiastically embraced his ministry with African American youth. Gary’s commitment to the youth and his obvious love for them earned him great respect and “street cred.” Now in his mid-fifties, Gary planned to work well into retirement in this ministry, which gave him such joy and satisfaction. But God had other plans.
In July 1999, Gary was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. All other treatments failed. While living in the infirmary at Techny, a confrere asked Gary to reflect on his life. He recalled all the opportunities he had been given, all the blessings he had received, and all the people he had met. Facing death, he had no regrets or fears. In typical Burr-fashion, he said, “It would be pretty cheap to start complaining at this point after all the blessings that I’ve had.”
Gary died on February 9, 2000 at age sixty-one. By our accounting, Gary’s life was much too short, yet no one could possibly tally the impact he had on the lives of so many in that short span.
About the Author: Bro. Dennis Newton, SVD, originally from Waterloo, Iowa, entered the high school formation program run by the Divine Word Missionaries in East Troy, Wisconsin, in 1966. After graduation from Divine Word College in Epworth, Iowa in 1974, Bro. Dennis worked two years in Japan. He entered the novitiate and professed first vows in 1977. He worked at the Holy Rosary Institute in Lafayette, Louisiana, for six years before professing perpetual vows as a Divine Word Missionary. Bro. Dennis served for five years as Treasurer for St. Augustine Seminary in Mississippi. This was followed by eleven years of ministry at Divine Word College in Iowa as Business Manager and National Vocation Director. He is currently the Mission Office Director at our Chicago Province headquarters in Techny, IL.