John Burns, 1944-2008

[KathieK]

John was one of my favorite people in FIRST. Whenever we were at an event together or at one of Rosie's pasta dinners, John would come up and say, "Kathie, come here. Let me introduce you to someone..." John knew EVERYONE! And then he would show me the latest article that had appeared in the local paper about Rosie. John had an Irishman's temper... and an Irishman's twinkle in his eye. He loved to tell stories. He not only was there for his team, but for everyone in FIRST. A week before my FTC event I called him up. "John, I need flags again this year. I forgot about them! " It didn't matter that he was trying to get his FTC team up to speed for the scrimmage the following day, or that it was a few days before FRC robots shipped, all he said was, "How many do you need?" Last year, at John's "retirement" party, I learned that he was a dumpster diver. He gave me a paper he had written on dumpster diving which I used in several NEMO workshops this past fall. I got great ideas for scavenging materials from John! Although he stepped down as team leader of Rosie, he decided to form an FTC team at the middle school and his grandson, Seamus, is a member this year. And because he couldn't give up helping the kids in Agawam, he ran for school board this fall - and won. I staffed a FIRST booth at the recent Natl Science Teachers Assoc convention in Boston and John brought his FTC middle school team to demo. After they finished, John let them loose in the Exhibit Hall and they came back with all sorts of fun stuff including hermit crabs, caterpillars, posters, diodes... and he just shook his head and smiled. He knew those kids would remember going to the NSTA convention for a long time.
And it was really, really very special for me to be in Boston when Rosie won their Chairman's Award. I know they made him very proud. Thank you, John. We'll miss you a lot. Every time I see a big straw I will think of you!