DR. ROBERT "BOB" BURNS
IN APPRECIATION OF HIS 19 YEARS OF COMMUNITY SERVICE
MAYOR AND COUNCIL MEMBER, CITY OF LEMON GROVE
MEMBER, METROPOLITAN TRANSIT DEVELOPMENT BOARD
CHAIRMAN, ACCESSIBLE SERVICES ADVISORY COMMITTEE
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HIS DEDICATION, SUPPORT, AND MEANINGFUL
CONTRIBUTIONS TO REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION SERVICES FOR
RESIDENTS THROUGHOUT THE GREATER SAN DIEGO REGION
ARE A TESTIMONY TO HIS SPIRIT OF COMMUNITY
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HIS UNIQUE SPIRIT, SPECIAL SENSE OF HUMOR, AND
KINDNESS WILL LIVE ON IN THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF
THOSE FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE KNOWN HIM
1923 - 2003
Here is a newspaper article about him:
"For former Lemon Grove Mayor Robert F. Burns, fiscal conservatism started in the garage of his home.
That's where he designed and hand painted his own campaign posters, keeping his political expenses to a minimum.
"The day you were allowed to put the signs up, he had them all over town," said Jack Shelver, Lemon Grove's city manager from 1977 to 1994.
Not that Dr. Burns had to campaign like an underdog.
A member of Lemon Grove's original City Council in 1977, he repeatedly logged the most votes of any council member in winning every election he entered through the early 1990s.
Dr. Burns, a retired veterinarian who left city government in 1996 after fulfilling an ambition to serve as mayor, died Thursday at his Lemon Grove home. He was 79.
The cause of death was complications from melanoma cancer, which was diagnosed in his lungs about a month ago, said his wife, Jacquelyn.
"Good old small-town boy" is how Dr. Burns described himself to The San Diego Union-Tribune upon retiring from politics. "My style is 'we,' consensus, get things done," he said.
As a councilman, he realized his goal of seeing a vintage trolley station, a replica of an original Lemon Grove train depot, built in his city in 1989. "It was Bob's idea and it worked," Shelver said.
"He had to convince the MTDB (Metropolitan Transit Development Board) to deviate from the standard design – which it really didn't want to do. But once Bob pushed it, everybody sort of embraced it, and it became part of Lemon Grove's downtown revitalization program."
In 1995, Dr. Burns identified property that he felt might be needed by the city for future projects. "We're working on plans to rebuild our new library on it," said Mayor Mary Sessom. "Dr. Burns was extremely instrumental in acquiring that property, and it proved to be one of the best decisions we could have made."
During his tenure at City Hall, Lemon Grove's population grew by 25 percent to 25,000. He championed such projects as a senior center and a Home Depot redevelopment project.
The last mayor to be chosen by a council vote, he also supported measures to have the mayor elected by the voters, which first occurred in 1996 with a two-year term. Beginning in 2004, a four-year mayoral term, which he also backed, will take effect.
"Not only was Dr. Burns important to the community as a whole, but I'll miss him as Santa Claus at the annual sheriff's pancake breakfasts and as a leprechaun in the St. Patrick's Day parade," Sessom said.
"Anytime anyone wanted a character in a civic event, he/she usually would ask Dr. Burns. He had a marvelous sense of humor, an ability to pull people into his circle and share with everybody."
Dr. Burns, who moved to San Diego County in 1948, was born in Grand Rapids, Mich.
He studied veterinary medicine at Michigan State University and served as a pharmacist's mate in the Navy during World War II. After receiving his doctor of veterinary medicine degree, he began his practice in Michigan.
In 1955, he founded the Lemon Grove Veterinary Hospital, which he operated until 1991.
Before Lemon Grove became San Diego County's 14th city in 1977, Dr. Burns established himself as a community leader by serving on flood-control and fire-district boards.
From its incorporation until 1992, Lemon Grove had only one mayor, Jim Dorman, who was elected by his council colleagues. Dr. Burns' longtime goal was to break Dorman's stronghold on the office and change the policy of council members electing the mayor.
"I think it fosters the cronyism, the deal-making, the things I think are the bad part of politics," he said of the former mayoral election process. "If you can get two other people to vote for you, you can continue to be mayor."
Dr. Burns got his chance to be mayor by winning a 3-2 vote in 1994, when he succeeded Brian Cochran, who stepped down in 1994 to launch an unsuccessful bid for Congress. Cochran had succeeded Dorman in 1992 when the latter retired.
Although Dr. Burns decided against running for re-election, he remained a presence in Lemon Grove political circles. "He privately counseled and mentored various council members who were close to him," Sessom said. "If he felt there was a voice that needed to be heard, he was always there."
In 1994, Dr. Burns brought the Sheriff's Department Senior Volunteer Patrol to Lemon Grove and became a charter member.
As a member of the Lemon Grove Historical Society, he helped organize the "Lemon Grove in World War II" exhibit, which opened in January and runs through July 31 at the society's Parsonage Museum.
To gather memorabilia – including uniforms, weapons, copies of old letters and framed displays of medals – he contacted as many people as he could, "all the old fogeys I knew," he told the Union-Tribune.
An avid outdoorsman, Dr. Burns filled his den with hunting trophies, including the skin of a 300-pound bear he shot out of a tree.
His hobbies ranged from collecting pin-on buttons and Japanese art to making stained-glass weather vanes and building miniature ships in bottles.
In earlier years, he acted in community theater productions with the Lemon Grove Players and built some of the props.
"He was interested in many things," his wife said. "And he could use his time better than anybody."
A son, Patrick, died of lung cancer at 47 three years ago. A daughter, Erin Fletcher, 33, died in an auto accident in 1995.
Survivors include his wife, Jacquelyn; daughter, Sheila M. Najor of Spring Valley; sons, Terrence J. Burns of Mariposa and Dennis J. Burns of San Diego; sister, Patricia Smetana of Kalamazoo, Mich.; and four grandchildren."
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