Re: John Burchfield

[Leo Nagorski]

HI all,

 

I’m enclosing some sad news. One of our long-time pillars of the local Humanist Community, John Burchfield has died. I am enclosing the e-mail I received from Michael Houlihan. Since I wasn’t a member of John’s church, perhaps those of you on this list who were can bring this to the attention of the minister David Herndon. I will contact others who may have known John from Allegheny and some of the other UU churches in the area. If there is a memorial service perhaps some of us would be able to attaend.

 

Sincerely,

 

Leo Nagorski

Virus-free. www.avast.com

[Jane Steranko]

Oh, that's terrible. I really like John. He added so much cohesiveness to the group is a soft spoken way. I will truly miss him.

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Houlahan <mhoula...@gmail.com>
To: <lnag...@verizon.net>
Cc: 
Bcc: 
Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2017 18:44:01 -0400
Subject: John Burchfield

Hi,

I'm writing this assuming you're the Leo who is/was one of John's intellectual sparring partners at the Oakland Unitarian congregation.

I'm sorry to tell you that John died late last week.  He had listed me as a contact for some of his social services and on Friday afternoon I got a voicemail from a service saying he did not respond to an attempt to bring food to him.  I drove to his apartment and found him lying in bed, unresponsive and cold to the touch.

I called 911 immediately and shortly there were EMT and police personnel in the apartment.  They were using his cell phone address book and reaching out to the social-work staff at West Penn to locate next of kin and anyone who might know of "pre-arrangements" .  There is a brother in Ohio.  I had his name (David), address and phone number on an info sheet John gave me, but the info is more than 10 years old and may no longer be accurate.

That's about all I have.  I shared the news with Alan Venable, a high school and college classmate who now lives in San Francisco, and he is sharing it with some of the people in the circle that he and John were part of.  

I should mention that cause of death is certain to be natural causes.  As you might know, John was dealing with a number of ailments, including diabetes and a Parkinsonian tremor.  He was briefly hospitalized twice this spring, the first time after passing out in a Forest Hills restaurant and the second after a home-visiting physical therapist took his vitals and thought his blood pressure was dangerously low.  On both occasions, the hospital (UPMC East and West Penn, respectively) called me and I picked John up and took him home.  That said, the condition of his apartment -- a large pile of mail on the floor and general disarray -- suggests that his emotional condition was not tip-top.

Please share this news with anyone in the UU community who would appreciate knowing it.  If I have any additional news, I will pass it on.

Mike Houlahan