Lawrence Burke

       The Wayback Machine is an Internet Archive. I remembered an old web site I created for our 35th Reunion. This was built the old fashioned way with html code. I do not pretend it was as good as the sites we can build using templates today, but I am glad I found the content. There was quite a bit about our teachers which I am going to reproduce.

      I never had Mr. Burke but the comments he inspired were priceless!

Jeff Roberson:

Ah, Larry Burke. Really the only teacher I remember from RHS that mattered to me, only because I spent so much time in graphic arts or the photo areas from sophomore year to graduation. Keeper of the flame, emperor of the lost arts - who else at RHS can legitimately claim to have steered at least 5 young men into their life's work? John Humrich, John Viggiano, Dan Unger , Steve O'Connor, me - have all made a living or pursued degrees in the graphic arts.

When I sat down with my guidance counselor at the beginning of senior year to discuss college he asked me what I loved. "Math and photography", I replied. "Math", he said, "What do you do with that? Photography..." I stopped listening, mostly because my mom called him a dope (thanks mom!) and Larry eventually steered me towards RIT, along with Chubba, Dan and Vigg. Took me another year to get there, but it provided me with a framework for everything that was to come, the perfect meld of technology, craft and art.

It could have been yesterday when I first stepped into the dark rooms at RHS and he showed me how to make a print. I can still see the image coming up through the developer, shadowed in red, cast in pure magic. I can hear his huge baritone in the dark room senior year, remarking, once again, on the strange odoriferous mix of acetic acid and "that smell off you and O'Connor - burning your underwear (frying your brain cells, smoking your shorts, etc.) during free period again?"

The King of Alchemy, Long Live The King!

Francesca Cavallaro:

Mr. Burke, teacher who listened and also was generous with his cigarettes.

Tim Daly:

We had an adopted cat named Timothy. that was his name when we got him so we kept it. Anyway, my father loved this cat. He had the coloring of a siamese but he was one fat cat, like 25 lbs, or something like that. I was taking photography with Mr. Burke 1st semester of senior year. I had brought a camera home and was going to give a picture of Timothy to my father for Xmas. Well, I let it go to the last minute so on the last day of school before Christmas break there I was after school rushing to try and make this print. Some of you may recall that Mr. Burke was asst. wrestling coach that year so we both got out of practice somehow and got to work on the print. I guess it was 12x12. It was black and white. I was very likely showing signs of frustration or maybe worries about skipping wrestling practice so when we get to the final stages and we are in the dark room the print starts to appear and it is just an awesome photo. My parents hung it in the enclosed porch in our house and it was up there for 20 years at least. Anyway, as the print comes out we kind of look at each other like, "Shit yeah, good print" and he blurts out, "There ya go Timmy PAPA's GONNA HAVE A PRINT TONIGHT!" I laughed my ass off.