John Grant Burnett ’45

JOHN BURNETT died in New York Hospital Oct. 24, 1991, from a heart attack. John entered Princeton from his Milwaukee home and, before departing for service with the Eighth Air Force in Okinawa, established an impressive Princeton record. He was a member of the freshman governing council, editor of the NASSAU SOVEREIGN, V.P. of Whig Clio, and an officer of Charter Club. His advocacy skills, preeminent at Yale Law School, were earlier recognized at Princeton by awards to him of the Hope Debate Prize, the John G. Buchanan Prize, and the Phil Sherman Bennett Prize.

After graduation from Princeton in 1947, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, his record at Yale Law was sufficiently distinguished as to merit him a prized Supreme Court clerkship with justice William 0. Douglas. John later joined the U.S. Agency for Intl. Development, ending as general counsel of that agency, after which, for nine years, he was executive V.P. of the Development and Resource Corp. in New York.

In 1969, John joined the New York State Urban Development Corp., and originated such projects as the multi-income community on Roosevelt Island in the East River. He joined the Rockefeller Corp. in 1976 and the next year became president and chief executive of its realestate development subsidiary. One of his accomplishments was advising David Rockefeller on the development of the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco.

Most recently, he was responsible for the development of several freetrade enterprise zones throughout the U.S.

John is survived by his wife, the former Jane Holmes, also a Yale law graduate, and three sons, John S., Anthony M., and Mark H., as well as a daughter, Barbara Jean Berman, and three grandchildren, to all of whom the Class expresses its deep sympathy.

The Class of 1945