Remembering Dr. William P. Burks

Dr. William P. Burks was nearing retirement when he was sitting in a meeting, chatting with a nonprofit consultant who asked what he would miss most about being a surgeon. His reply: I really like taking care of people.

Some years later, standing at a podium, speaking to a group of local nonprofit leaders during a reception, Bill told them he loved volunteering and fundraising for the Princeton Area Community Foundation because it gave him the chance to help so many different charitable organizations.

Bill passed away on Jan. 28 at the age of 91, but he spent his lifetime taking care of others.

He was a dedicated husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather who lit up when talking about his family. He cared for patients during his more than 30-year career as a general and vascular surgeon in Princeton. In retirement, he treated his volunteer service at the Community Foundation like a second job.

“Bill was always compassionate and generous. He was one of the most kind and caring people I’ve ever met,” said Nancy Kieling, the retired President & CEO of the Community Foundation, who worked closely with Bill for many years and who recounted his talks with the consultant and the nonprofits. “He and (his late wife) Judy were a totally devoted pair, and he would often talk to me about his kids and grandkids. He just adored them and was so proud of them. All of who Bill was as a man and as a human being, he brought to the Community Foundation. We didn’t get someone different than family or friends got. That’s who he was.”

Bill was one of the Community Foundation’s longest serving Trustees. He joined the Board in 1993, two years after the organization was founded, served as Board Chair from 1997 to 2006, served on every committee and chaired several of them. In 2021, in recognition of his long and continued volunteer service, he was named as a Trustee Emeritus.

Bill’s connection to the Community Foundation was his longtime friend, John D. “Jack” Wallace, another Trustee Emeritus.

“In typical Bill fashion, he called me and asked if he could join up, and I went to one of the founders, Stan Smoyer, and he said sure he can,” Jack said. “Bill was very good at everything. He was very community-oriented, and he helped everyone he could – whether it was as a surgeon or someone in need in the community. He was an all-around good guy.”

Bill was a fierce champion for the Community Foundation and all nonprofits in the region.

He was an Emeritus Trustee at Princeton Day School, and a former member of the Princeton HealthCare System Board of Directors. In 2012, the Princeton Medical Center Foundation established the William P. Burks Physician Philanthropist of the Year Award.

Bill and Judy raised their son and three daughters in Princeton. He first came to the area as a member of the Princeton University Class of 1955. He received his medical degree from The College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University and served two years in the Army Medical Corps, including a year as a trauma surgeon in Vietnam.

Bill had all the qualities of an excellent old school doctor, said Ann Reichelderfer, a former Board Chair. He was a careful listener with a great memory who took a genuine interest in other people.

He was loving, loyal and hardworking. He was thoughtful and honest. Intelligent and compassionate. “He was always open to new ideas, and he never walked away from professional disagreements, yet he always found a way to resolve them amicably and productively,” she said.

He played tennis at Pretty Brook, was an avid golfer and a college sports fan, always rooting for Princeton University’s football and basketball teams.

For about 20 years, Bill had his own office at the Community Foundation.

“I loved having him in the very next office to me, because I could just pop my nose in and ask him all kinds of things,” said Nancy. “It’s not that normal for a board chair to have an office in the office, and it’s certainly not common for a staff to welcome that, and we did – everyone of us loved having him there.”

Ann said she did not know much about the Community Foundation when Bill and Nancy invited her to lunch to recruit her as a Board member. Normally, her inclination would have been to ask for some time to consider the request, but she immediately agreed to serve.

“Who could say “no” to Bill?” she asked. “He had a way of being straightforward. He was passionate about the Community Foundation. He was clearly very smart and thoughtful. He just pulled you in.”

Some years later, when she was asked to serve as Board Chair, it was easy to say “yes,” because she knew Bill would be there to mentor and support her, she said.

“It was great to go to a fundraising meeting with him, because he didn’t hesitate to ask for funding for the Community Foundation,” Ann said. “He wasn’t asking for himself. It was for a good cause. He’d explain why he had donated, and why he had been on the Board for so long. He was extremely effective.”

In the early days, Bill understood the importance of the Community Foundation at a time when many people could not imagine what was possible. He was instrumental in its growth from an organization that held $300,000 in assets and made $7,500 in grants to one that now has more than $260 million in assets under care and has awarded a total of more than $114 million in funding to nonprofits.

“It was people like Bill and Jack Wallace, along with Stan Smoyer and (local philanthropist) Betty Wold Johnson who saw an extraordinary need in the Princeton community, despite the wealth, and out of that seed, the Community Foundation grew what it is today – a foundation that gives out grants in the neighborhood of $20 million a year,” said Anthony “Skip” Cimino, a former Board Chair. “Think about the impact – Community Impact Grants, the All Kids Thrive initiative – think about what has happened and the millions of dollars that have gone out because of people like Bill Burks coming together, having a vision years ago. We stand on the shoulders of giants. What they did was extraordinary.”

In the early years, Bill’s name was synonymous with the Community Foundation, said David Scott, another former Board Chair.

“Like so many people, I thought the world of him, as a calm, insightful, generous wonderful man, who was really, just beloved in the community,” David said. “One day, I said to him, you are the Mount Rushmore of the Princeton Area Community Foundation. People trusted him and he was the face of the organization. So, I was kidding him, but it took hold. And I continued to say it to him, and he continued to chuckle.”

Eleanor Horne, Trustee Emerita, met Bill when he, former trustee Tom Harvey and Nancy came to her ETS office to learn more about how her organization approached grantmaking.

“I ended up, as a result, deciding that I also wanted to learn more about how the Community Foundation functioned,” she said. “I was so impressed by the three of them, but especially Bill, with his calm, self-assured, but kind manner. He became one of my heroes.”

Bill raised a lot of the funding that got the Community Foundation started, and all the board members knew it, said Eleanor. But he never bragged about it.

“His lack of ego was amazing. His concern was the success of the Community Foundation, and not just the fundraising success, but also adherence to ethical principles,” she said. “He always had the wellbeing of the Community Foundation front and center. He was a leader in every respect, and the Community Foundation would not be what it is today without his leadership.”

Years ago, at a Board meeting, Trustees thanked founding member Stan for a generous donation.

“Stan said the most important thing I’ve done, is not this gift, but it was persuading Bill Burks to stay on the Board as Chair,” recounted Tom. “Stan saw it as critical factor, and it was a critical factor, because in early days, Bill was there every day making things work. In those days, Community Foundations were not known. But when Bill asked for support, people might not have understood what a Community Foundation did, but they understood Bill thought it was good, and that was good enough for them.

“There’s no doubt in my mind, if you had pick out the thing that was the major factor in the Community Foundation’s success, it was the presence of Bill Burks, more than anyone else, more anything else.”