John Lonergan Burke's Obituary
Obituary – John L. Burke, Captain USN (ret)
John L. Burke, Jr. was born in Portland Oregon, on August 30, 1920, one of 4 siblings. In his youth, John Jr. was an avid athlete, playing basketball and softball in high school. He also attained the rank of Eagle Scout. In 1940 he matriculated at the University of Oregon, but subsequently he received an appointment to attend the US Naval Academy and entered the USNA class of 1944. In 1943, the Academy graduated the class a year early, and John Jr. was sent to the Pacific Theater as an Ensign, serving on the USS Renshaw, a Fletcher class destroyer. The Renshaw served in Micronesia and helped sink a Japanese submarine in the waters near Leyte. In February, 1945, the Renshaw was struck by a Japanese torpedo in the Mindanao Sea, and 19 lives were lost. The remaining crew restored power and reduced flooding, and the ship was temporarily repaired in the Philippines, returning to Tacoma, Washington for permanent repairs.
After the war, John received an MS in Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, where he met and married Elizabeth Luby in 1948. They served tours of duty in Guam, Boston, the Philippines, California, and Washington, DC. In 1964, John was made Commanding Officer of the Pearl Harbor Public Works Center, a position he held until 1967.
Commencing in 1967, he served for a year in Saigon, and upon his return to the US he was assigned for 2 years to the Philadelphia Naval Base as Commander in Chief of Naval Facilities Engineering. Retiring from the Navy in 1971, Captain Burke was anxious to return to Honolulu, and accepted an assignment with Sheraton as the Construction Superintendent for the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel. Upon completion of the hotel, he left Sheraton for a position with the firm of noted Honolulu structural engineer Alfred A Yee, with whom he worked for another 40 years.
Captain Burke loved Hawaii, and never wished to live anywhere else. He told the story that when he landed in Honolulu in 1948 on the way to Guam, he remarked to himself that he would retire there. He lived in the Yacht Harbor Tower condominium from 1971, when it opened, until 2018, and loved the views of Ala Moana Beach Park and Manoa Valley.
Captain Burke died of natural causes on Monday, May 6. Captain Burke was pre-deceased by his first wife Elizabeth Luby Burke (1998), and his second wife, Louise Groner Burke (2015). Captain Burke is survived by his daughter, Julie Stoll of Wenatchee, WA, and his sons, Bill Burke of Dallas, TX, and Jack Burke of Waimanalo, HI, plus 8 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. He will be sorely missed.
Services will be held on July 11, 2019 at Hawaiian Memorial Park (Valley of the Temples).
Visitation begins at 9:30 am, followed by a prayer service at 10:00 am and a luncheon at 11:00.
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