Skip to main content

John George Burkle Jr.

Thu, 03/09/2023 - 09:35

July 25, 1949 - Feb. 5, 2023

John George Burkle Jr. “was passionate about photography, music, fishing, airplanes, his Lionel trains, gardening, his granddaughters, and dogs,” his family wrote. Family was paramount to him, and his “sentimental values . . . helped shape the paths his children took.”

His youngest son, Justin Burkle, shared his passion for photography and is pursuing it as a career, while his tenure at TWA “exposed his eldest son, Jonathan, to aviation, which led to a career as a commercial airline pilot.”

Mr. Burkle, who was 73, died of heart failure on Feb. 5 at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. He had been living on Woodbine Drive in Springs since 2015.

He was born on July 25, 1949, in Beverly, Mass., while his parents, John George Burkle and the former Claire Widmaier, were on vacation there. He grew up in Park Forest, Ill., and Dix Hills, and graduated from Bowling Green University in Ohio. Mr. Burkle served in the Army from 1972 to 1976.

On May 29, 1976, he married Gail Grimm, and the two settled in Levittown. He worked as a TWA air freight supervisor at Kennedy Airport. The couple lived in Levittown until 2006, then in Cave Creek, Ariz., for nine years.

His wife survives, as do his children, Jonathan Burkle of Denver and Justin Burkle of Montauk, and his grandchildren, Sage and Heidi. He also leaves three siblings, Carol Offutt of Maryland, Jan Peltz of Vermont, and Randee Burkle of Washington State.

Mr. Burkle was cremated. A celebration of his life will be held in the spring.

Villages

A Wartime Wedding in Ukraine

Friends and family members arrived from near and far — by long trips on planes, trains, and buses — to attend the Sept. 14 wedding of Ethan Bregman and Olha Beskhmelnytsina in Lviv, Ukraine.

Nov 7, 2024

Wainscott Committee Honors LTV Studios Director

Michael Clark, the executive director of LTV Studios, was honored with a Recognition Award at a Wainscott Citizens Advisory Committee meeting on Saturday after being invited as a guest speaker.

Nov 7, 2024

Shoppe's Party Nearly Over on Park Place

After 34 years in business — all of them on East Hampton's Park Place — the Party Shoppe will close its doors at the end of February when its owner, Theo Landi, retires.

Nov 7, 2024

 

Your support for The East Hampton Star helps us deliver the news, arts, and community information you need. Whether you are an online subscriber, get the paper in the mail, delivered to your door in Manhattan, or are just passing through, every reader counts. We value you for being part of The Star family.

Your subscription to The Star does more than get you great arts, news, sports, and outdoors stories. It makes everything we do possible.