George Cass Burke Jr. ’39

After graduation, he began a career with Bamberger’s department store, and except for his time in military service, he remained in retailing throughout the years. During World War II he served in the Navy as a lieutenant commander, principally in the Pacific theater aboard an aircraft carrier, with major responsibility for establishing supply depots throughout the Pacific.  

He and Helen Louise McCreight were married in 1944, and with their three children, were a close and loving family. They lived for 32 years in Atlanta, where George retired as executive vice president of R.H. Macy & Co. During those years in Georgia, he served as elder of his church and participated in other community activities.  

George always enjoyed golf and tennis, and in his later years also was interested in travel and small boating. In our 50th yearbook he said the only negative in his life had been a heart attack and that his participation in the Triangle Club was his favorite memory of Princeton.

Helen died in 1998. George is survived by their three children, Patricia Dean, George III, and Barbara Ann; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. To all of them, we offer our sincere sympathy.