Durham Mayor William Bell, right, greets John F. Burness at Tuesday's ceremony honoring the Duke senior vice president. | Les Todd
Endowment for Neighborhood Partnership Named After Burness
Announcement made at Tuesday ceremony
Thursday, May 15, 2008
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Durham, NC -- Durham Mayor William Bell and more than 100 university and community members paid tribute Tuesday to Senior Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations John F. Burness, who will retire at the end of June after 17 years at Duke.
As part of the ceremony at the Washington Duke Inn, President Richard H. Brodhead announced that Duke would establish the John F. Burness Endowment for the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership Fund.
The fund will help support the Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership, the nationally recognized collaboration that Burness helped develop between Duke and 12 neighborhoods and their seven public schools near the East Campus. The partnership’s efforts have brought significant changes in affordable housing, community-based health clinics and K-12 education.
In addition, Durham school board member Steve Schewel announced that a science lab built at E.K. Powe Elementary School with the partnership’s assistance would be named after Burness.
