A new park has emerged from Emory and the Clifton Community Partnership’s efforts to turn a residential property into green space. The 1.2-acre property at 1164 Clifton Rd. was dedicated as the Drs. Madeline and William Burbanck Park on April 22 by Emory, the CCP, the Druid Hills Civic Association, Peavine Watershed Alliance, Alliance to Improve Emory Village and Park Pride. “It was a great opportunity for community members from the neighborhoods and Emory to join together on Earth Day and celebrate the dedication of an environmental gem near our campus,” said park committee member David Payne. In its preserved state, the property will provide an environmentally friendly, aesthetically pleasing transition between the residential homes in Druid Hills and the commercial district in Emory Village, just a stone's throw of sorts from our home, the Department of Environmental Studies.

The Benefactors

(posting of recent obituary notices by gracious permission of the family)

Dr. William Dudley Burbanck

Dr. William Dudley Burbanck, age 92, Professor Emeritus of the Emory University Department of Biology, departed this life peacefully at Hospice Atlanta on September 5, 2005. He was born in Richmond , IN , son of Reverend G. G. and Flora Burbanck and had twin older sisters, Miriam and Marguerite. His professional life as a Professor began at Earlham College, IN in 1931 and continued through University of Chicago, The City College of New York, Drury College, MO, Marine Biological Laboratory, MA and Emory University (1949-1980). His tenure at Emory University included his service as chair from 1952-1957 and teaching assignments included general biology, bacteriology, protozoology, and field ecology. Dr. Burbanck produced 28 graduate students who completed 40 degrees (M.S. and PhD.) in areas of protozoology and estuarine ecology, and in areas of his primary interest ecology of the estuarine isopod Cyathura polita. This research centered on Cape Cod populations of Cyathura but extended out to Nova Scotia to the north and Lake Ponchartrain in Louisiana to the south and from Baja California to Vancouver in the west. A species of Cyathura was also named in his honor, burbancki. Grants from NSF, NIH and others resulted in funds well over 1.5 million dollars and over 70 published papers and chapters in three books. Dr. Burbanck foresaw the need for field research and teaching facilities and was involved in the establishment of two field stations one on the Georgia coast near Brunswick and the other at Emory University’s Lullwater Estate. One of his greatest joys was traveling to regional, national and international conferences including six trips to Europe where papers were presented to the Society of Protozoology and the International Limnology Society. Awards and offices include Sigma XI, Phi Sigma, Phi Beta Kappa, President Association of Southeastern Biologists, President Southeastern Estuarine Research Society, Associate Editor Estuaries, and Vice President Society of Protozoology. In addition to his east coast, west coast and European pursuit of Cyathura Dr. Burbanck enjoyed playing tennis and bridge with his family, friends and colleagues. Other hobbies included genealogy, sculpting, drawing and a love of music, light opera; he sang in college productions of Gilbert and Sullivan and attended Metropolitan Opera productions in Atlanta .  His heirs have happily inherited many of these traits.

Dr. Madeline Palmer Burbanck

Dr. Madeline Palmer Burbanck, 92, of Atlanta, Ga. and Woods Hole, departed this life peacefully, at Morningside Assisted Living in Newport News, Va., on Jan. 1, 2007. She was born in Moorestown, N.J., daughter of Reverend E.W. and Margaret Hopkins Palmer, where she and her younger siblings, Peggy (Margaret Thurler) and brother Win (Winthrop), attended Moorestown Friends School (MFS). She received a Bachelor of Arts in 1935, and Master of Arts in botany in 1939, from Wellesley College, where she was also an outstanding field hockey player, and earned an assistantship to help with the planning and maintaining of Wellesley's gardens. In 1941, she received her doctorate in botany from the University of Chicago, at the same ceremony that her husband, Bill, received his doctorate in zoology. Their two children, Melinda and George, were born in Springfield, Mo., where Madeline and Bill taught at Drury College. Her tenure at Emory University included the rank of research associate in biology, where she conducted studies funded by NSF, and others on floristics and ecological succession on granite outcrops, and as joint author with her husband, Dr. W.D. Burbanck, in areas of genetic variation and distribution of an estuarine isopod, cyathura polita. A species of cyathura was named in her honor, madelinesis. One of her greatest joys was traveling to regional, national, and international conferences, including six trips to Europe with Bill, which increased their already large group of friends. Other activities, awards, and offices include an ecologically based column in the DeKalb New Era; member of the board of Druid Hills Civic Association; Georgia Botanical Society; Georgia Conservancy; secretary of the Schipperke Club of America; office holder in the Association of Southeastern Biologists (ASB); and many others. Madeline enjoyed playing tennis and bridge with her family, friends and colleagues, and worked to keep the once highly polluted Peavine Creek clean. Other hobbies and activities in Georgia and Massachusetts included gardening; the local garden club; training and showing champion schipperkes; caring for her pet cats; singing in the Episcopal Church choir; sewing; bird watching; coin and stamp collecting; Girl Scout leading; attending light opera on the Cape; and Metropolitan Opera productions in Atlanta.