Walter Dean Burnham

Walter Dean Burnham, known as “Dean” to family, friends and colleagues, passed away peacefully, in the presence of family, on October 4, 2022 at age 92. Although he lived in San Antonio at the time of his death, he moved five years ago from Austin, Texas, where had lived for 29 years.

Born on June 15, 1930 in Columbus, Ohio to Alfred Huntington Burnham and Gertrude Elinor (née Hamburger) Burnham, Dean grew up in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Dean earned his BA in political science from Johns Hopkins University in 1951. Thereafter, he enlisted in the United States Army during the Korean War. Among other assignments, he was stationed in Monterey, CA where he learned Russian in an immersion program at the Defense Language Institute. He regarded his military service as one of the most valuable experiences of his life, as it opened his eyes to a larger world. Upon his discharge from service, Dean obtained his M.A. (1958) and Ph.D. (1963) in Political Science from Harvard University.

On a boat to Europe in the summer of 1957, Dean met the love of his life, Patricia Ann (“Tish”) Mullan. He married Tish on June 7, 1958 at St. Catherine of Sienna Catholic Church in Riverside, Connecticut. They celebrated 60 years of marriage, when Tish passed away in November 2018. Dean was devoted to family, and lived a full life. He and Tish had two children, and four grandchildren, who loved him dearly. Dean will be remembered by family for his warmth, wisdom, wit, generosity, knowledge and political insight. He was a long time member of St. Louis Catholic Church in Austin, Texas. He had many friends and colleagues whom he treasured dearly. Dean enjoyed reading, playing Scrabble with friends, Opera and classical music, stamp and coin collecting, and was rarely seen without his beloved pipe in one hand, and a book in the other.

Dean had a passion for politics since his youth, and enjoyed an illustrious career as a political scientist. Until his recent passing, Dean was a Professor Emeritus in the Government Department at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught for 22 years. Before coming to UT-Austin, Dean taught political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1971-1988. His early teaching career included academic appointments at Boston College, Kenyon College, Haverford College and Washington University.

A prolific scholar, Dean wrote his first book Presidential Ballots, 1836-1892, which remains an important contribution to his field, in 1955 at age 22. Thereafter he authored 8 more books, over 40 articles, and several professional book reviews. His scholarship was ground-breaking, and involved quantitative analysis of American behavioral and electoral politics, the theory of “critical realignment,” for which he is most known, the decay of the political party system, and trends and problems with voter turnout. As an expert on American elections and voting patterns, Dean was a frequent contributor to the press, addressed Congress on multiple occasions, and served as a consultant for various political campaigns. He received numerous honors and awards throughout his career, including: An Honorary Doctor of Letters (Litt. D.) degree awarded by Rutgers University, membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Guggenheim Fellowship in London, a Fellowship with the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and service as President of the Politics and History Section of the American Political Science Association. He was well-known in his field and regarded by colleagues as collaborative and generous with his time, knowledge and ideas -- a true scholar’s scholar.

He was beloved by his students, many of whom he continued to mentor beyond the classroom, and developed life-long friendships with. Dean was a consummate intellectual, and through avid reading had mastered many subjects, including history, geology, meteorology, geography, evolutionary science, and linguistics. A 2010 UT-Austin Government Department newsletter summarized Dean’s teaching: “…a Dean Burnham lecture was no ordinary event – not many scholars can, with aplomb, explain American politics through combined references to Seinfield, the Whiskey Rebellion, tectonic plates, and a mountain of statistics and have it make sense, let alone be stimulating. But Dean Burnham did, on a regular basis.”

Walter Dean Burnham is survived by his son John Patrick Burnham of Scottsdale, Arizona; his daughter Anne More Burnham (Edward Garcia) of San Antonio, Texas; granddaughters Veronica Leigh Burnham and Miranda Lynn Nayyar (Hiranya Nayyar) of Brooklyn, New York; grandsons Matthew Dean Garcia and Luke Antonio Garcia of San Antonio, Texas; nephew Gregg Garofalo of Jupitor, Florida and niece Marci Garofalo of Old Saybrook, Connecticut; niece Lara Nedobity of Middlebury, Connecticut. He was predeceased by his wife Patricia Ann Burnham, his mother Gertrude Elinor Burnham (née Hamburger) of Baltimore, MD, his father Alfred Huntington Burnham II, of Jewett City, CT, and brother Alfred Huntington Burnham III, of Baltimore, MD.

Visitation will be open to friends on Wednesday, October 19, 2022 from 6:00-9:00 p.m. with a Rosary at 7:00 p.m. at Sunset Northwest Funeral Home, 6321 Bandera Road, San Antonio, TX 78238. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Thursday, October 20, 2022 at 11:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, 223 E. Summit Avenue, San Antonio, TX 78212. Interment will follow at 2:30 p.m. at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, 1520 Harry Wurzbach Road, San Antonio, Texas 78209. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Dean's honor to any charity of your choosing.