CHELSEA, VT — Edward Burger (Ed) of Chelsea died of heart failure at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington DC on Saturday, April 4, 2020, with his wife Sarah at his side. His children, Heidi Kole of New York City and Hilary Burger of Albuquerque, New Mexico, were in constant contact with him and Sarah by phone, Heidi flew down immediately from Chelsea to be with him, but unfortunately was not in time. Ed and Sarah would have been married for 60 years in June.

Ed discovered Chelsea as he traveled from McGill University Medical School in Montreal to Boston to secure his next appointment for his PHD at The Harvard School of Public Health. On those drives, he considered Chelsea the most beautiful town in Vermont. In 1967 he and Sarah bought the farm there and joined the community which they have made their residence for over 50 years.

Ed was amazed at the generosity of neighbors and the town. The first season, Bob and Louise Ainsworth (Sarah Ricker’s grandparents and lifelong friends) loaned him their tractor to get started. With the help of that tractor and the generosity, relentless humor, and wisdom of Bob and numerous other neighbors, the old Mattoon farm came to life and the land was eventually conserved for generations to come. Ed and Sarah rarely missed a town meeting. Despite Living in two places, he also served on various committees including the Chelsea planning commission. He was instrumental in working to bring Chelsea it’s much needed broadband

Service, and was especially concerned about the towns’ economic challenges including the untenable restrictions & new massive increase in flood insurance regulations imposed upon its residences. Although Sarah did not live on the First Branch of the White River, she was invited to join the Branch Club. Ed and Sarah both loved the annual picnics of the 100 year old club.

Neighbor Doug Lyford remembers…

Ed’s days were always long and hard physical work became part of his life. His love for the forest was with him every day of his Vermont life. He was so proud of what he had done for the future of his wood lots, even while knowing that he wouldn’t benefit from the work, but that a future generation would.

Ed loved our little town. He always picked his feet up a little higher when he walked from the post office to Will’s or Button’s, always taking the time to stop and visit.”

Ed was born in Cleveland, Ohio on Feb 23, 1933, at the beginning of the great depression, and grew up in industrial Lorain, Ohio. His parents were Edith Archias of Sedalia, Missouri, whose family ran the largest seed store in the Midwest, and Edward J. Burger, an electrical engineer from Los Vegas, New Mexico. After WWII, Ed’s father was sent by the US Secretary of the Army to Japan for two years to reorganize the Japanese power industry (reporting to General MacArthur). Young Ed spent those two years in both Japan and Switzerland, where he developed a lifelong curiosity about languages, the world, and it’s people. While there, he learned French and continued his piano study, which became a lifelong pursuit. He played in a Jazz band at McGill and loved to invite other musicians and friends to musical gatherings Chelsea and Washington, DC.

Ed was a Navy Flight Surgeon for two years, serving in a carrier-based Marine air squadron in Beaufort, South Carolina, and as was the case wherever they went, Ed and Sarah made life-long friends there. While in the Navy, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Ed, who was already studying Russian, was called on to jot down the numbers of the Russian missiles as they were taken away. He always participated in Chelsea’s Memorial Day service and parade – one year playing the piano on a float and another as speaker.

In his role as a physician, Ed served under several U.S. Presidential administrations and helped develop programs in biomedical research, national health insurance, population and family planning, and nutrition and health care delivery. He was a Professor in the Department of Community and Family Medicine of Georgetown University Medical School, and in later years, Founder and Director of the Eurasian Medical Education Program. Ed was a physician who saw his work in a broad, even a worldwide, context.

In the 1970s he helped further the scientific and medical collaboration between the US and USSR, helping to pave the way for improved communication in the later days of the Cold War.

When he realized that Russian physicians had been isolated from the international medical community during the Soviet Period, he established, in collaboration the American College of Physicians, the Eurasian Medical Education Program which brought improved medical care to remote regions deep inside Russia. He continued this work long after reaching retirement age. In recognition of this contribution, he was made a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Tatarstan), and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London.

A celebration of gratitude to those who touched Ed’s life will be held at a later date in both Chelsea and Washington. Contributions in Ed’s memory may be made to the First Branch Ambulance at P.O. Box 74, Chelsea, Vermont, 05038.