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John Burry
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| Dr. John Burry |
By Jessie Farewell
Student correspondent
This August Memorial’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics
will lose one of its most dedicated and longest-serving faculty members,
Dr. John Burry, who has been with the university for 42 years.
Dr. Burry was born in Bonavista Bay in 1938, and received his bachelor
of education from Memorial University in 1958. He began his career as
vice-principal in Harbour Grace, serving with its faculty for two years.
After he earned his master’s degree from Dalhousie University, he
was persuaded in 1961 by Dr. Mose Morgan and Dr. Jack Blunden to be a
guest lecturer at Memorial. This impressed in him the desire to eventually
work with Memorial University, so after completing his PhD at Dalhousie’s
Queen’s College, he joined Memorial’s math department as a
professor.
Saw many changes
Dr. Burry has seen many changes during his time at Memorial, and has survived
through the university’s best years, and the not-so-best years;
he has seen it double in size, and he has lasted through six presidents.
Experience is certainly not something this man is lacking, and he gained
this experience as a professor and as department head for nine years,
1976 to 1985. Although he looks on his time as department head fondly,
Dr. Burry noted that his heart was always in the classroom and it’s
truly where he feels at home.
Some of the changes Dr. Burry experienced came during his tenure as department
head, when new guidelines were introduced and the union was developed,
and he also saw initiation of the graduate program, and administered the
first PhDs. He also managed to develop the headship system, incorporate
the math club, and the applied math system.
On a more challenging note, Dr. Burry reflects on the reduction of faculty
in his department, down to 30 from 50 since the late 1960s. Fewer professors
has meant larger classes which, in turn, has made it difficult to focus
on individual students and their needs.
A program called Junior Division, which he and several other faculty members
began in the late 1960s, strove toward just the opposite. It was developed
as a comprehensive first-year math program to better adjust first-year
math students in the transition from high school to university level math.
He said it gave students from all backgrounds an equal opportunity to
succeed, and also brought in three professors who have since become department
heads, and many other invaluable people who started in the program as
high school teachers and continue to be with the university today.
Two of the most significant memories in Dr. Burry’s career are marked
by music. The first occurred during the opening ceremonies of the new
Thomson Student Centre, which closed with a beautiful performance by a
Jamaican steel drum band, a moment that has stayed with him all these
years. The second came during a convocation ceremony, when the honorary
graduate, Dame Vera Lynn, sang instead of giving a more traditional convocation
address.
Passion for music
Dr. Burry confesses to having quite a passion for music and he has served
on several committees with the School of Music. In fact, he was part of
the group that got the school moving toward where it is today. He is also
quite a musician himself, and has been playing the accordion since childhood.
Memorial staff recently got a taste of his accordian-playing talent several
times, in performances held for convocation committees and for friends.
Dr. Burry’s volunteer commitments also extend to convocation, something
he has been doing since he began at the university. He is now deputy marshall
of convocation. He enjoys spending his free time playing squash, golfing
and competitive swimming. He plans to retire with his wife, Myrtle, on
Vancouver Island, where their two children are working and living.