September 18, 2002

Former La Salle President, now Art Museum Director
Br. Daniel Burke Receives Lasallian Distinguished Educator Award

If you're going to teach art history, reasoned Brother Daniel Burke, you should have an art collection. More than a quarter of a century after first thinking that, Burke is now director of La Salle Art Museum, which hundreds of students from a variety of classes visit each year.

It was for this dedication to his students and teaching that earned him the 2002 Lasallian Distinguished Educator Award.

"Brother Daniel's selection was an easy and obvious choice," says Ray Ricci, Vice President for Enrollment Services and a member of the selection committee.

"When the selection committee received word that the theme for this year's award was Arts Education and the Lasallian mission, it became immediately apparent who our winner would be," said Ricci. "Brother has been a living example of good judgment and good taste for the rest of us for as far back as I can remember. The Art Museum is a visible and overwhelming example of what I mean by that. Through sheer persistence, skill and devotion, he has created a magnificent gift for all of us to share, so that we can see the potential and goodness possible in the human spirit. We have been truly blessed by his giving so much to so many people."

A native of Pittsburgh, Penna., Burke became familiar with the Christian Brothers when the family's babysitter joined the order. As an adolescent, he visited the regional novitiate in Maryland to visit a family member. He noticed that the Brothers were all vigorous, young men who played baseball. The impression was a lasting one, as he joined the order, and began his career teaching at West Philadelphia Catholic High School in Philadelphia as an English teacher.

He later joined the faculty at La Salle College, and became Vice President for Academic Affairs. It was then that the school began collecting art for its classes.

He secured space in the ground floor of Olney Hall, a classroom building, and with the help of materials from a Tudor-style mansion (and designated for destruction but saved by Burke with help from students), the atmosphere is anything but a basement. With the assistance of curator Caroline Wistar, the museum's collection totals 300 paintings and 4,000 prints, ranging from wood sculptures to works by Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins to an ink drawing by Picasso.

Philadelphia Inquirer Art Critic Edward J. Sozanski called the museum "a jewel" in one of his columns, while Philadelphia Magazine said it was one of the city's "most secret of secret treasures."

When Burke was presented with the award at a recent ceremony, he told of how he was destined to have a career in art:

At age three-and-a-half, Burke accompanied his mother on a doctor's visit. Young Daniel loved picture books, but his mother forgot to bring one. Restless without his picture books to occupy him while his mother was being examined, Daniel wandered through the corridors when he came upon a group of women, none of whom, he realized, were his mother.

"I lost my mommy," the boy told the women, but it came out sounding "I lost my money." The ladies took pity on the poor child, and opened their purses, giving him coins and even a few crisp dollars. The pieces of paper fascinated the boy, with their bright color and faces of stern, older men.

Eventually his mother found him and discovered his cache. At the dinner table that night, his father shook his head and predicted his son "would become either a con man or art museum director."