Robert E. Burks

Family and friends are mourning the loss of Robert Elbert Burks, Jr. who died on Tuesday, November 7, 2017, at the age of 100. Bob was born on August 24, 1917, in La Grange, Georgia, the son of Palmyra Florida Burnside and Robert Elbert Burks, Sr. He was a graduate of Ramsay High School, in Birmingham, Alabama, class of 1934, and he graduated from Georgia Tech, Class of 1938, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry.

In World War II, Bob served in the United States Navy from December1940 to January 1946, finishing the war with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

Bob met Mary Louise Ivy of Birmingham shortly after he returned from military service, and the couple was married in June 1946. After the war, Bob studied at the University of Wisconsin and was awarded a MS and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 1947.

Bob worked as Research Chemist for SRI, Southern Research Institute, after completing his undergraduate degree, and returned to SRI after military service and completing his Ph.D. He continued working there until 1977.

In 1958, Robert Ivy Burks (known as Robin), Bob and Mary’s only son was born. It was while Robin was still a child that Bob and Mary began to focus intensely on their lifelong love of the natural world, and along with other talented Alabamians, recognized the need to work for its protection.

Beginning in 1967, when Bob and Mary led a small group of exceptional individuals to form Alabama’s first state-based environmental organization, the Alabama Conservancy (now the Alabama Environmental Council), Bob and Mary worked as a closely-knit team. Mary Burks became the Conservancy’s first President and then its first Executive Director, and Bob became the organization’s first Treasurer, a job he held off and on for many years. With Bob’s support and encouragement, Mary led the Conservancy's battle to win the first eastern wilderness area, the 12,700-acre Sipsey Wilderness, which was created in 1975. Bob is widely recognized as a co-founder of the Alabama Conservancy, and his brilliant wife Mary is considered the ‘Mother of Alabama’s Environmental Movement.’ Through their joint efforts, Bob and Mary created an environmental organization that served as a training ground for the next generation of environmentalists, people who eventually went on to found organizations such as the Little River Canyon Center, Ruffner Mt. Nature Center, the Cahaba River Society, Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation, and the Alabama Wildlife Center.

Always practical, and never afraid of hard work, Bob also worked for many years on behalf of the Conservancy to develop a recycling program for Birmingham, and he served as head of the Conservancy’s Recycling Center from 1974 to 1977. Bob also served as the Conservancy’s President from 1976-77, when he became a Professor and later Chairman of the Department of Polymer Science at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he remained until his retirement in 1984. During their time in Mississippi, Bob and Mary took on a successful battle to preserve Okatoma Creek, a tributary of the Pearl River in southern Mississippi which was in danger of channelization by the Army Corps of Engineers. Thanks to them, the Okatoma is now considered one of the best canoeing streams in the state.

Upon their return to Birmingham, Bob and Mary resumed their work as members of the Board of the Alabama Conservancy, and Bob again served as Treasurer for a number of years, while Mary chaired the Membership Committee. Bob and Mary’s final project was the Alabama Wildflower Watch, an organization dedicated to appreciation and protection of Alabama’s roadside native wildflowers.

Bob was also active in a number of other organizations devoted to the study and protection of nature, including the Birmingham Audubon Society, which he served as President, the Alabama Wildflower Society, the Alabama Wildlife Center, and the Birmingham Fern Society. In their explorations of the gorges of the Sipsey River, which became the Sipsey Wilderness, Bob and Mary discovered a rare fern, the Alabama Streak Sorus Fern, found only in sandstone rockhouse habitats along the Sipsey River in northern Alabama. All known plants are found in a few small populations along a 1/2 mile stretch of river. To honor the finders of the fern, it has been named Stegnogramma burksiorum.

Bob was fond of saying that “I just held Mary’s coat.” but in reality, Bob worked tirelessly throughout his long career performing important services that were vital to the success of the Conservancy as an organization. His scientific training provided intellectual power that was much needed in the fledgling organization. Bob’s kind and courteous manner, as well as his scientific expertise, are remembered and appreciated by all who knew him. He is survived only by his daughter-in-law, Debra Hori-Burks, widow of Bob’s only son, Dr. Robin Burks, and his grandson Griffin Burks-Hori, of Pasadena, California. Although separated by the miles, since the death of Mary Burks in 2007, and the death of Dr. Robin Burks from brain cancer in 2009, Debra Hori-Burks has been Bob’s loving guardian, managing the care of her beloved father-in-law during his long and healthy old age with unflagging devotion.

The family will receive friends on Thursday, November 16th at Ridout's Valley Chapel beginning 10:00 a.m., with the funeral service following at 11:00 am. Burial will follow at Elmwood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of Bob to the Alabama Environmental Council: http://www.aeconline