The Death of Burns B. Crookston

April 27, 1975. It was in the lounge of the A side, late afternoon, people were gathering for dinner. She stood there in a light brown trench coat, belted at the waist, grasping a brown leather briefcase in her right hand. She was visibly trembling. She asked me to find Ray Buso who was around the corner in the kitchen. We stood with her in the lounge and Jane told us that Burns was dead, hit by a car on North Eagleville as he did his daily run around campus. We talked briefly about the best way to tell the community, and she broke down, tears falling down her cheeks in grief. She said, in characteristic Jane fashion, “Who is going to write the book?”

I remember that Ray asked for the attention of the group at dinner and broke the news. A very quiet dinner. I remember thinking that it was the first time that somebody told me about somebody that I knew, had died. The community eventually planted a tree outside the School of Education. Ted Malone was put on the case to choose the type of tree. It was a Star Magnolia which blooms early in the spring. There was, of course an argument with the UCONN administration about making a memorial on campus, but eventually a stone was added near the tree with his name, the years he was on earth, and an a quote.

In one of the renovations around the Ed building the tree and the and the stone were lost. I remember at one of the reunions a discussion about where it went and nobody knew. Jane, I think said that she had made an effort to locate the stone which she had been told was moved to storage during the renovation work. It was never found.

Steve Sokoloski