Helen Burke

[Helen Burke]

I am the daughter of the late Dr. Ruth C. Burke - research scientist, Yale School of Medicine and the late Dr. Albert (E.) Burke, former private advisor to JFK, and, for 15 or 20 years or so, quite a popular political/social commentator of the 1950's & 1960's.

I'm finally preparing to write my father's biography. It will focus on his first years teaching at Yale & show how he viewed the then-new medium of television as a tool for both teaching and learning. As a young professor in 1951 who was very concerned about our own country's dependence upon so many other countries for natural resources, he successfully brought the very first televised programs of public education into America's living rooms. It was his effort to still "make people think" together as a nation, to not become complacent now that the War years were behind us.

Later, his 1962 book, titled "Enough Good Men - A Way of Thinking" was a compilation of scripts from his 1961-1964 shows on NBC - and which is now a very clear snapshot of that era.

It is interesting to have grown up as the child of a man whose opinion was sought by many in power and to have seen, experienced and lost things in life because of my father's work during that period of time.

I find this site to be a wonderful resource as well as a helpful place, actually. There's a lot of information and some great people here. I feel right at home.