David Stewart Burgess (1917 - 2007)

Born 17 Jun 1917 in Manhattan, New York County, New York, United States

Ancestors

Died 21 Oct 2007 at age 90 in Benicia, Solano, California, United States

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Biography

David Stewart Burgess June 15, 1917 - Oct. 21, 2007

"David Stewart Burgess, a Protestant minister who campaigned for affordable housing in Benicia and Vallejo for the past decade and a half, died Sunday, five days after suffering a heart attack. He was 90.

The Rev. Burgess' life had many 'callings' the ministry, labor organizing, opposition to racial intolerance, development work in Asia and finally housing activism. He was not immune to self doubt. But all his work reflected his core belief that it is Christian duty to address poverty and injustice.

The Rev. Burgess was born on June 15, 1917 in New York City. His parents took him as an infant to China, where they were YMCA missionaries. In 1927, newly returned to the United States, he attended a Giants baseball game and became a lifelong fan of the team. As a teenager, he nearly died of rheumatic fever and from that ordeal acquired another lasting passion, jogging and healthy living.

He graduated from Oberlin College in 1939, married Alice Stevens in 1941, and the following year, after getting a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York, was ordained a minister in the Congregational Church. He had registered as a conscientious objector on the eve of World War II; subsequent efforts to serve as a chaplain with the troops overseas were turned down due to his prior illness.

In the 1940s, he and his wife lived and labored with migrant farm workers in Florida and New Jersey. He became chaplain to the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. In 1945, he began one of his first housing campaigns, helping successfully block demolition of the Delmo Homes in Missouri, where 549 tenant farmer and sharecropper families lived.

In the late 1940s, he attempted to organize textile workers in the South. Later, he became a diplomat and served as U.S. labor attach in India, Peace Corps director in Indonesia and UNICEF director in Southeast Asia.

The Rev. Burgess returned to full-time ministry in 1979 to become pastor at two churches in inner-city Newark, NJ. In 1990 he retired and moved with his wife to Benicia. There he led the founding of the Affordable Housing Affiliation in 1994 and served as its first president. In 2000 his autobiography, Fighting for Social Justice, was published. In 2005, he endured a personal tragedy, the death of his eldest son Lyman of ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease. Until his own passing, he remained active in the housing group. The Burgess Point apartments are named in his honor.

He is survived by Alice, his wife of 66 years; children, Laurel, John, Genie and Steve; grandchildren, Sam and Anna Koritz, Rachel Steele, Katharine and Sarah Burgess, and Erica and Wesley Castro; and great-grandchildren, Norman Paquette and Beatrice Koritz.

A service to celebrate the Rev. Burgess' life will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 27 at Community Congregational Church, 1305 West Second Street, Benicia.

The family asks that in lieu of sending flowers, donations be made to the Affordable Housing Affiliation, 110 East D Street, Suite C, Benicia, CA 94510. Donations are tax-deductible.

Arrangements are under the direction of Passalacqua Funeral Chapel, Benicia." ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Vallejo Times Herald, California 10/24/2007.

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