John Burger, formerly of
Wayzata, Minn., died January 11,
2005 of pneumonia at Miravilla
Care Center near Cherry Valley, CA.
John's wife of 64 years, Mary Jane,
died of heart failure on March 3,
2004 at Miravilla. (See March-April
2004 issue of GroundSwell for her
obituary.) A Memorial Service for
both John and Mary Jane Burger will
be held on June 4, 2005 at Wayzata Community Church, of
which they had been members since 1955.
John and Mary Jane had moved to Southern California,
after living for a few years at the Presbyterian Home in
Spring Park, MN, to be near their daughter Susan (Mrs.
John) Guldseth. In their last years they attended the
Beaumont Presbyterian church in Beaumont, CA.
Daughter Susan writes that John was busy with his
stamp collection and was hoping to complete his book, and
at his request over the Christmas holidays they went to buy
him a desk for his room. Son-in-law John and grandson
Steve put the desk together for him, rearranged his
Miravilla room, and readied it for him to work. However,
John was admitted to the hospital three days after
Christmas with what developed into pneumonia.
John grew up in Goodland, Indiana, where he graduated
from high school, and went on to Indiana University in
Bloomington, where he received a BS in business
administration. He graduated in 1938 from the University
of Minnesota with a law degree. John joined the Air Force
in 1941, became a Lt. Colonel and served at Randolph Air
Force Base, TX, and the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., and
afterwards was a member of the Air Force Reserves.
After the war, John set up a law and accounting
practice in Minneapolis with Adolph W. Link. John's
employment history included the Minnesta School of
Business, University of Minnesota, Automation Institute
of America, Dale Carnegie Institute where he taught
leadership training, and for 25 years he was with General
Mills in Minneapolis where he was Community Relations
Coordinator and Manager of Training.
He was active in civic affairs including YMCA,
United Way, Jr. Achievement, Boy Scouts of America,
Citizens League, Outward Bound, and the Greater Minneapolis
Council of Churches of which he was elected president in
1969. John's favorite Bible verse was "And what does the
Lord require of you? to act justly, and to love mercy and
to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8b.
Retiring from General Mills in 1980, he then served
four 2-year terms as representative in the Minnesota State
Legislature, district 43A. In an obituary article on John
Burger in the January 18, 2005 Minneapolis Star Tribune, it
is noted that he is remembered for trying to reduce every
spending bill by 5 percent, being against professional
career lawmakers and salary raises for legislators, and for
supporting a land-based taxing system.
John had started planting the land value tax seeds
back in 1977 when he worked to get "The Land Value Tax vs.
Ad Valorem Real Estate Tax" section included as a proposed
study in the "Inside the Minnesota Experiment" report
published by the Center for Urban and Regional affairs in
Minneapolis. He had also gotten on the public hearing
agenda to testify before the 1983 Minnesota Tax Study
Commission, not only himself but also Walter Rybeck from
the Center for Public Dialogue and also Nadine Stoner from
Wisconsin Property Owners League. (John had previously
come to Madison, WI in 1980 to testify at the Capitol for
AJR 96, a site value tax resolution introduced at the
request of WPOL. John owned property in Northern
Wisconsin.)
In 1985 as a Minn. State Rep., John co-authored HF
388 to establish a Legislative Commission to Study Property
Tax Distribution. In 1986 John testified to members of the
Citizens League Property Tax Commission that they should
recommend Site Value Taxation to correct the primary flaw
in the Minn. property tax system. To promote his
perspective, John wrote and distributed a 1988 brochure,
"SVT - The Rational Philosophy for Tax Reform in
Minnesota". John authored and distributed a Legislative
Incentives newsletter to his fellow Minn. legislators.
In 1989 when John ran for Governor of Minnesota, his
platform included a Land Price Index, classifying property
into only two classes -- site and improvements, and
reducing taxes on improvements and substituting site value
as the tax base. John was appointed Secretary-Treasurer of
the Minn. Independent-Republican Party in 1991, following
an unsuccessful 1990 campaign for Minn. State Treasurer.
Bob Weinholzer, Chairman of the state Republican Party in
the early 1990s when Burger was Secretary-Treasurer, is
quoted in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that "John was
always able to get a good spin on things, get people
laughing, loosen them up."
Mark Haveman, former Project Director with the
Minnesota Environmental Quality Board, recalls John Burger.
(See Jan.-Feb. 2000 GroundSwell, "Smart signals: Economics
for Lasting Progress" report from the Minn. Planning
Environmental Quality board.) Mark is now with the
Minnesota Taxpayers Assn. and writes, "John was one of
those rare individuals who exhibited true passion for
principles and ideas. It is hard to say which he enjoyed
more: his experiences in advocating for Georgist ideas or
the opportunity to educate others on them. I was one of
his 'students' in 1999 - needing a crash course in an area
of economics with which I was completely unfamiliar. He
welcomed me into his home and with patience, graciousness,
and good humor got me up to speed. A hearing on a land
value taxation bill is was held by the Minnesota Senate tax
committee the week of February 22, 2005. Although John
was not directly involved in this legislative proposal, his
legacy in the state is clearly still evident."
Joshua Vincent, Executive Director of the Center for
the Study of Economics, attended a Land Tax meeting in St.
Paul on January 10, 2005, and writes, "There was a moment
of silence for John Burger. He was highly respected."
Josh Vincent reports that two 2004 Land Value Taxation
Minnesota Senate/House joint bills SF978 / HF1035 have been introduced. A study performed by
Mark Haveman of the Minnesota Taxpayers, widely
disseminated in the tax policy community, confirms benefits
of a CSE assisted parcel-by-parcel study by the
Gamaliel-associated group of Minneapolis-St. Paul
congregations. (see Nov.-Dec. 2003 GroundSwell about the
Gamaliel national conference. Also see March-April 2004
GroundSwell about ISAIAH, by Rich Nymoen of St. Paul.)
Common Grounders will remember that John Burger
served as an elected at-large director of CG-USA from 1987
to 2001. In 1987 he was appointed chairman of Common
Ground's Fundraising Committee. John is also remembered
for promoting MOST (Mission-Objective-Stragegy-Tactics) at
the 1988 Common Ground board of directors meeting in
Atlanta. John served as Executive Administrator of Common
Ground-USA from 1992 to 1994. During that time in 1992
Common Ground of necessity decentralized from the
previously shared offices/staff of HGFA/CSE in Maryland,
and Common Ground received the Mary Davis bequest. John
wanted to spend more time working on his long time OMNI
book project. John remained an elected at-large director
of CG-USA until 2001.
John also retired in 2001 from the board of the
Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, on which board he had
served several terms.
In the summer of 2003. Members of the Southern
California chapter of Common Ground-USA welcomed the
Burgers with a dinner at a local restaurant. Marion Sapiro
of Laguna Niguel, CA, founder of Common Ground-USA,
remembers meeting John about 40 years ago when she had the
occasion to work on a committee with him. He was an
officer of the American Society for Training and
Development and frequent presenter at its yearly
conventions. (Marion is a retired Continuing Education
Specialist, Business and Management, from the University of
California at LA Extension.) She remembers that "his
presentations drew huge ovations and incorporated many of
the thoughts that he later presented at our conventions."
John's public speaking inspired many. He co-authored
two books: Business Automation Fundamentals and People
Management Principles, and numberous poems.
John was preceded in death by wife Mary Jane Burger,
son John Burger, and parents Fred and Maude Burger. He is
survived by son Rick Burger (Jennifer), Destin, FL;
daughter Susan Guldseth (John), Cherry Valley, CA;
daughter Melinda Colwell (Warren Lester), Deephaven, MN, 7
grandchildren, 9 great grandchildren, many nieces,
nephews and their families.
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This obituary article on John Burger was compiled
by Nadine Stoner, Beloit, WI, email NadStoner@aol.com