The Stamford Historical Society

Presents the Virginia T. Davis, Stamford Historical Society
Distinguished Service Award to

Dan Burke

June 4, 2012
Address by Ron Marcus, Librarian

Good afternoon. It is a pleasure for me to present this year's Virginia T. Davis, Stamford Historical Society Distinguished Service Award to an individual who is most certainly deserving of it.

This award is given in memory of a wonderful person, whose devotion to the City of Stamford through this organization was summed up in an Advocate editorial which said: “She believed that a community's sense of its own history gave it a solidity and depth that it otherwise would not have. She was right in thinking so.”

 Good evening. It is again my pleasure to present this year’s Virginia T. Davis, Stamford Historical Society Distinguished Service Award to one of our most outstanding volunteers. This award is given in memory of a truly remarkable individual, whose devotion to the City of Stamford through this organization was summarized in a 23 March 1983 Advocate Editorial. “[Virginia] believed that a community’s sense of its own history gave it a solidity and depth that it otherwise would not have. She was right in thinking so.” Our award recipient graduated from Stamford Catholic High School, where he was a member of their football team. Later, after serving in the U. S. Army, he became Media Coordinator, Manager of Media Services and Manager of Purchasing/Procurement for Home Box Office: HBO Studio & Broadcast Operations in New York. His time here at the Historical Society began by seeking additional information on several ancestors who had lived in Stamford. As the depth of his research expanded, so did his interest in the history of this community as well. He investigated and compiled a listing of local fraternal organizations that existed here during the 19th and 20th centuries, based primarily on Stamford City Directory entries. He was instrumental in creating an exhibit of scenes from the motion picture film Boomerang as well as researching and determining their exact locations when they were filmed in 1946. Filling the entire length of one side of the central hallway of the Society’s museum, it was an integral component of that particularly successful “Cozy Sundays” program last year. Our award recipient was featured in a May 28th front page Advocate article describing a major Stamford Historical Society project, an online reconstruction of the city’s World War II Service Roll. He has not only directed this endeavor but personally entered a good portion of the 9,835 names of men and women who either enlisted or were drafted from Stamford. It now appears that during the war this list was never recorded in any local, state or national archive. Recently commenting on this, Tony Pavia, Principal of Trinity Catholic High School and author of An American town goes to war said: “It might seem strange that there were no records then, but they didn’t have a sense for just how historic this was going to be. It was just what was happening; it was just normal, and it wasn’t really until the ‘90’s that people started to realize that this was akin to the Civil War, that it was such an important part of American history.” In addition to updating the Service Roll list with submitted corrections and/or additions, our honoree is studying 19th and 20th century Stamford sports teams in preparation for a major exhibit due to open here this coming Autumn. For all of the aforesaid and so much more, it is now my privilege to present this year’s Virginia T. Davis, Stamford Historical Society Distinguished Service Award to Dan Burke.

Photos © Stamford Historical Society

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