Deceased August 7, 2006

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In Memory

Donald Schofield Burns, eighty two, passed away Monday, August 7, 2006, at the Veterans’ Home in Scarborough, ME, after a brief illness. He was born in Andover, MA, on July 21, 1924, a son of Joseph Lawrence and Katherine (Horne) Burns, and was educated at Phillips Academy in Andover.  He entered World War II in 1943 and served the better part of the war in the army as a medic with engineer’s combat in Germany.  He received the Bronze Star and was cited for the Silver Star after meritorious service to his wounded comrades.  After the war, he entered Amherst in 1946 and graduated in 1950. He married Joan Fleming in 1950.  Don was a stockbroker with Merrill Lynch and Harris Upham in Boston, MA.  He lived in Andover and North Andover, MA, for many years.  He summered in Biddeford Pool and Drakes Island.  He retired to Kennebunkport.

Don was a member of St. Augustine Parish, ancient and honorable member of Manchester Bath and Tennis Club, and board member of Lanam Club, all of Andover, MA.  He was also an active member of the Republican Party.  He loved to read, listen to music, and spend time with his family.  He was predeceased by his wife, Joan, who died in 2003.  He is survived by four daughters, Holly Johnson, Heidi Maynard, and Amy Gaynor, all of Kennebunkport, and Sarah Bushee of Duxbury, MA, a brother, three sisters, and four grandchildren.

At Amherst and at Chi Phi, his fraternity, we called Don “Scho.”  He was a wrestler while on campus.  In freshman year, I started working at Valentine (along with many others).  Scho was the head waiter in the West dining hall, and I was one of his crew.  He was one of the first WW II veterans that I got to know, and at a naive seventeen years of age, he was one of several other veterans that I looked up to.  Junior and senior years, he and John Rowland lived next to me and Doc Pettee in the fraternity.  Scho had several enterprises going to make a few bucks while on campus.  I think one was a laundry business, and another was as a representative for Southwick clothes.  It was he who taught me how to dress in the Ivy style, and I shortly got rid of my big Windsor necktie knots and my double-breasted grey suit for four-in-hand knots and three-button jackets.  Scho was friendly and always ready to laugh.  He and some of the other veterans welcomed me to the social affairs in James Hall freshman year, and that was a very satisfying thing for this (at the time) fuzzy-cheeked seventeen-year-old freshman.  For whatever reasons, Scho never returned to Amherst after graduation, although he was urged to come back for Reunions.  We missed him at those times, and we will miss him henceforth.

Willie McCormick ’50