Howard W. Burr's Obituary
Howard Whitney Burr
March 5, 1918 - April 19, 2017
Howard was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Howard Sylvester Burr and Mary Chase (Whitney) Burr. He was born again at age 14 during a Salvation Army evangelistic tent campaign on July 17, 1932. That completely changed the direction of his life. In his late teens God put His hand on him and called him to Officership. He entered the Salvation Army Training College in 1938 and then was ordained and commissioned as a Salvation Army Officer. He married the love of his life, Lt. Dorothy L. Tindall on April 13, 1942.They served together for over 44 years prior to their retirement in 1983. After 34 years as a corps officer, he became a delegate to the International College for Officers in 1968 and was appointed as a Divisional Secretary in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Newark. He gave 3 years as a department head at the New York Territorial Headquarters and played trombone in the New York Staff Band. His last 4 active years were spent as the Administrator of the Retired Officer’s Residence where he presided over the care of 120 retired Salvation Army Officers. Howard and Dorothy had three children: a daughter, Karen Downing of North Potomac, Maryland (and grandson Kevin); a son, Lt. Col. Howard (Pat) Burr, a retired Salvation Army officer living in Lexington, KY (Grandson Stephen (Rachel) Burr & Granddaughter Tricia Burr; and a son, Major Douglas (Deborah) Burr who is the Corps Officer of the Chambersburg, PA, Corps (and son Christopher Burr & granddaughter Lt. Jennifer (Joshua) Ivany. Howard also had 6 great-grandchildren. His wife, Dorothy, preceded him to heaven when she was Promoted to Glory on July 8, 2003. In retirement he authored 3 books, painted many oil landscapes and played the cowbells whenever he could. He played close to 1,000 rounds of golf and his sons could rarely defeat him. He regularly visited the sick and taught Sunday School, where he met his beloved Vera, whom he courted, married and loved until his last breath. He always tried to put a smile on the face of everyone he met, He worked at the Adult Rehabilitation Center until he was 80, domesticated cats into his 90’s and drove his car for far too many years. He loved his extended family to excess, catalogued over 100 years of Burr family photo history, would stop his car on a busy highway to rescue small stranded animals and always had a bag of peanuts handy to feed the squirrels. His favorite testimony was “God loves you, but I am his favorite.” He is survived by his beloved, Vera (Hartley) Burr and he considers her children, John (Vicki) Hartley, Bill Hartley, Lynn Hartley and Sandy (Chris) Kirchhoffer, his own.
Grandchildren: Erin (Amy) Hartley, Tara (Jason) Anderson, Jess Rowan, Jeremy Teed, Karen Hartley, Shawn, Heather & Matt (Lilah) Bourdon, Shawn (Alex) Bourdon and 8 great-grandchildren.
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