Dr. Richard E Burt's Obituary
Richard Earl Burt was born to Clyde Neblet Burt and Maggie Lee Mitchen Burt (Peggy to the world) in Crossett, Arkansas on April 6, 1934. The intended delivery doctor was out hunting and could not be reached, but the substitute performed his task well and Dicky joined the Burts to make a family of four. At around a year old, they moved south to the paper mill town of Bastrop, Louisiana where Dicky would grow up. His father Clyde worked as an electrician at the paper mill. He taught Dicky the basic skills of wiring and painting that they would later use in summer jobs. More importantly, he taught him the ethic of hard work which he would employ for the rest of his life. Clyde was the life of every party, always laughing and joking around the table, something anyone who spent much time around Dicky would surely recognize. Peggy was the backbone of the family, instilling the values of integrity and fairness in her children, demanding their best efforts in school, and making her legendary lemon and chocolate pies. Older sister Joyce set a studious example in the classroom, inspiring Dicky to achieve all he could educationally. Younger sister Margo was a "doll" of a little sister who brightened up the household. As a child, Dicky loved to play with his neighborhood friends, crossing the back alley to ride tricycles with close friend Bill Mattison, forming teams in grade school for pickup football and baseball in the local park, and cooking fudge with friends on Friday nights as a teenager. Dicky's lifelong love of cars began in high school with a beat up short-bed four-seater contraption that he resolved to drive to Florida with a carload of friends. The expedition made it a few miles into Mississippi before running aground and returning home in the wake of a tow truck. It surprised no one more than Dicky himself that he became the captain of the Bastrop High School cheerleading team, having been pressed into trying out by his friends after showing up to school in a shirt cheerfully embroidered with hula dancers.
Of all the things that brought the Burt family together, their strong faith and belief in Christian education ranked right at the top. Even when times were tough and money was short, Peggy made sure they had enough for the family's annual donation to Harding College, a young institution several hours north in Searcy, Arkansas. It was to Harding that Dicky would follow his older sister Joyce upon high school graduation.
He moved into Armstrong Dormitory upon arriving in Searcy and immediately befriended a group of older students he met through Joyce. Dicky knew he wanted to pursue a career in medicine after visiting an uncle in Magnolia, Arkansas who worked as a doctor and noticing his nice car and fine shotgun. His course of study at Harding prepared him for that path. Outside the classroom, Dicky enjoyed the social scene at Harding: hamburgers at Bill's Grill, outdoor activities in the beautiful Ozark Mountains and rivers surrounding the campus, and even, by his own account, almost getting elected class president. One memorable summer, Dicky and some Harding friends set off for Juneau, Alaska in search of summer jobs. Following rumors (that turned out to be true) that they could earn twice as much as they could back home, the boys found lodging at the local Church of Christ. Dicky's electrical training led him to quickly find work in a local welding shop. He loved the adventure inherent in such an experience, and this sparked a lifelong desire to travel the country and the world with friends and family. One friend back in Searcy who received a postcard from Alaska that summer was an employee in the business office from McGehee, Arkansas named Janice Myer.
Just about everyone on campus knew Jan, since she ran the money box and dispensed cash for allowance checks and paychecks to Harding students. Dicky and Jan's first formal date was attending a football game in Little Rock between Dicky's LSU Tigers and Jan's beloved Arkansas Razorbacks (LSU won 9-8). They became a steady item soon thereafter and were married on August 26, 1955, in McGehee, Arkansas. After a honeymoon tour that took them to Greenville, Mississippi, Nashville, and Kentucky Lake, Tennessee, the Burts moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana so Dick could take courses he needed to prepare for his graduate education. He ultimately chose Baylor College of Dentistry over medical school at LSU. After a year in Louisiana, Dick and Jan moved to Dallas, where they would live for the rest of their lives. Jan worked several jobs while Dick was in dental school, and after graduating he first practiced dentistry at a doctor's office in downtown Richardson. The couple moved north to the fast-growing suburb, and before long Dr. Burt had his own practice in the Richardson Heights Shopping Center at Belt Line Road and Central Expressway. His office would remain a fixture of that quadrant for the next six decades.
The Burts became a family of three with the arrival of Barbara in 1958. Father and daughter were always the best of friends, whether as a young girl riding in the navy Corvair convertible with the wind in their hair (hers more than his, if we're being honest) or as a young teenager all dressed up for dinner at The Old Warsaw (the pickled herring was better than they expected). Nobody could show you the town quite like Dicky. Later in life, Barbara was his number one Christmas elf, meeting for breakfast at La Madeleine to check all the lists twice before heading out on a shopping marathon. It was always last minute, and they wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
The arrival of Brad in 1963 made the family an even four. Growing up, Brad loved nothing more than a Saturday out with Dad: running errands, getting a haircut, often capped off with a late lunch at TGI Fridays on Greenville Avenue. Once they left home in a green convertible and came home in a yellow Corvette! Their travels together took them further afield as the years went on. Most memorable were the three trips to The Masters, occasions that were fondly remembered each April when they would watch the tournament together on television. Brad will be forever grateful that his dad was always just a few miles down the road when he and his wife Melody started a family of their own right back home in Richardson.
Dick became Dicky once again when Barbara had her first child Kolby, and he became a grandfather. Kolby was the next in line to enjoy a Saturday out with Dicky, cruising the streets in a dark green Firebird convertible to lunch (Houston’s if he was lucky) and a stop at Taylor's bookstore on Belt Line Road. Dicky cultivated Kolby's love of reading, something they both shared. He also taught Kolby to be curious about the world, and they would travel together to the great cities and national parks of America and some of the most beautiful and historic sites of Europe and Russia.
Dicky's only granddaughter came along when Barbara had Kate. They would share many memorable times together, from weekly Tuesday morning doughnuts before school to the annual birthday shopping spree. Most important, however, were near-daily lessons Kate taught before school in the second-floor classroom in her childhood home. Dicky, her star pupil and forever favorite student, never had a better teacher, and these mornings undoubtedly set Kate on her path to a career in education.
Brad and Melody's two sons would add more grandchildren to Dicky's collection. Bennett, their firstborn, remembers Dicky on Christmas morning, happily beaming over the scene of delighted grandchildren unwrapping a more abundant pile of presents than their year's behavior probably deserved. Perhaps most famous was Dicky's deeply in-character performance as a down-home auctioneer in the family's annual Christmas Day gift card auction, a game of high competition and grand strategy where everyone always came out a winner. Dicky also helped instill an ethic of hard work, generosity, and doing a job right the first time without any shortcuts that Bennett strives to apply to his life and family to this day. Becoming a great-grandfather to the four children of Bennett and his wife Catie brought Dicky yet another round of family joy late in life.
Bennett's younger brother Briggs would be Dicky's last grandchild. He, along with Jan, would foster Briggs's love of fishing, dropping many a line on Monday evenings at Bent Tree Country Club when the golf course was closed. Dicky and Briggs also formed a formidable "Mow Team." Starting each Saturday at 9 o’clock, Dicky would pick Briggs up in his indefatigable green pickup truck (christened The Judge by Briggs) and they would handle the yard work at the homes of Dicky, Brad, and Barbara before finishing the day with (you guessed it) a Saturday lunch together.
Despite his tireless dedication to both work and family, Dick somehow still found ample time for charitable activities and personal interests. His commitment to Harding and to Christian education led him to serve on the boards of both Christian College of the Southwest and Harding University, including a four-year stint as the Harding board's chairman. He also put his talents to use in service of his fellow man, both close to home and around the world. In the Dallas area, Dick worked extensively with Christian Care Center, Central Dallas Ministries, and CitySquare. Outside the U.S., he served on medical missions to Africa with Nigerian Christian Hospital and to Guatemala and Nicaragua with Health Talents International.
On his own time, Dick enjoyed reading, particularly the study of the history and theology of the church. More than any one specific activity, his favorite hobby was joining friends and loved ones in whatever they most enjoyed: tennis, golf, boating, or bridge. Whatever the game was, Dick loved to make sure everyone was having a great time. He traveled across America and around the world with his wife Jan, their children, grandchildren, and many close friends. Europe, Bali, Hong Kong, and Thailand expanded the map, but his favorite destination was Hawaii. Often clad in his famous orange floral bathing suit, it was the scene of the Burt family's first big vacations (and the site of perhaps his finest sporting triumph: successfully landing a 536 lb blue marlin, only the spear of which made it back to Texas as a trophy).
Dick always valued his church community. As an adult in Dallas, he attended the Skillmen Avenue, Waterview, and Preston Road Churches of Christ, making great friends at each. His faith drove every aspect of his life. As he said near the end of his life, he always hoped to do his best to “render his service to the people, whoever those people might be.”
Dick was preceded in death by his beloved wife of sixty-nine years, Jan Burt, his parents Clyde and Peggie Burt, and his sister Joyce Perkins. Dick is survived by his children Barbara and Brad (Melody); grandchildren Kolby (Kary), Kate, Bennett (Catie), and Briggs; great-grandchildren: Beckett, Ainsley, Addy, and Holden; sister: Margot Greene (Danny) as well as dear nieces and nephews, and a community of faithful friends.
For Dicky, life's greatest joy was providing a way for those he loved to reach whatever part of this life and this world they chose to seek, whether by their side or watching closely from afar. For those who loved him, the joy was in time spent with Dicky: in conversation and contemplation, on grand occasions and spurs of the moment, with a crowd or just the two of them. They will cherish forever the lifetime of Saturdays he gave them.
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