Who? What? When? Where? Why?
On May 24th 1949, the one person I appreciate most came into this world. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, attending Poly Prep Country Day School. Howard Alexander Bursen is his name. Some people address him as Howard, others as Howie. I call him Dad. As a child my father grew up drawing and fishing with his brother, Jon Bursen. As the years passed, he was accepted to and attended Cornell University where he achieved his AB, MA, and Ph.D. After living in Ithaca New York for 13 years, traveling, and experiencing great wonders of the world, he met my mother, Sally Jane Rogers. Time was spent getting to know one other, and they married on July 7th 1982, in Traverse City, Michigan, my mother’s hometown. In 1988 my sister was born in India. My parents got a call from the orphanage, and adopted Malana Rogers-Bursen. Four years later, on February 12th 1992, I came along, from the same orphanage in India, and laid in the same crib waiting for Howie and Sally to adopt me. I was welcomed into the family with loving arms in late August of ‘92. My dad grew up doing things that made him happy, playing the banjo, making wine, creating a life for himself that he could look back on and say, “Hey, those were good times”. He did all of this while still making a living to support his family. I asked my father, “Who was your inspiration as a child?” His answer was his father. He learned all the life lessons you need to know from his father, and now, my father is teaching me those lessons. I admire Dr. Howard Alexander Bursen for the person he became, and for everything he experienced in life.
I just read your posts. Your father's father, Dr. Earl Bursen, was the beloved doctor of many, if not most of the children growing up in the Boulevard projects in East New York, Brooklyn. People were writing wonder memories of him today on Facebook. Here is one example:Trudy Gewirtzman Malmut Earl Bursen was our doctor. He was great. Funny, he called my brothers and me "nudnicks"!😃
ReplyDeleteI was delivered by Dr. Earl Bursen in 1948, we lived in the Linden Houses project where George Gershwin now stands. He had lived there also until he build his beautiful home/office on Linden and Barbie. We moved to Queens but remained patients of his until he retired. He was certainly loved by many, including our family. We were always grateful when he came out to our home close to the Queens/Nassau border when I would be too sick to travel.
DeleteEarl Bursen delivered me on September 7th, 1948 at what was Beth El Hospital in Brooklyn. Dr. Bursen had lived among the returning Veterans in what was known as The Linden Houses, a temporary village set up to give returning servicemen and their families a place to call home.. my parents were among the very first to move in to the barracks that each housed three families. It wasn’t long after, Dr. Bursen had a house built on Linden Blvd and Barbie Ave. where your father grew up. George Gershwin Jr. High was later built on the land where Linden Houses once stood, so before the build started, all who lived there had to find new places to relocate to, my parents moved us out to Queens in a town called Springfield Gardens. Whenever I got very sick, Dr. Bursen made to trip all the way to take care of me. It was a long trek as we were close to the border of Nassau County. As a youngg teen, I would make the trip back to Brooklyn by myself, taking a few buses to see my favorite doctor until he retired. He also had derived my younger sister back in 1950. He was very well loved and I’ll never forget the box in his office (which was part of the beautiful home he had built,) it contained the prized lollipop he would give us for being “good patients!
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