Walter M. Burnett

Walter Mucklow Burnett was born in Schenectady, NY on November 8, 1937. He grew up in Niskayuna, NY and spent many of the summers of his youth at Camp Chingachgook on Lake George as a camper, counselor and staffer.

In 1955 he entered Wesleyan University and graduated in 1959 with honors and a major in History. He married Harriet Elizabeth Falls in August of that year, and they relocated to Iowa City, Iowa, for his graduate work at the University of Iowa with the support of an Edward John Noble Leadership Scholarship. He completed his Ph.D. there in 1965, finishing an interdisciplinary program that combined American history, sociology, political science and medical care administration.

His first faculty appointment was at Michigan State University, then he moved to Tulane University in 1968 with a joint appointment in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and the School of Business. There he was a founder of the Department of Health Systems Management and served as acting Dean of the Business School. He retired from Tulane in 1999 but soon returned to a faculty role at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health until his final retirement in 2014.

While in New Orleans, Walter served in many civic and volunteer roles, including as Chair of the New Orleans Library Board, the first male member of the New Orleans League of Women Voters, a regional board member of Planned Parenthood and an active supporter of the Urban League. He also used his skills as an early adopter of computerized databases to support political candidates for mayor, school board and other local offices.

During their retirement, Walter and Harriet built a beautiful house in the Smoky Mountains, near Whittier, NC where they cultivated gardens, the surrounding forest and many friendships oriented around a love of the outdoors. Harriet passed away there in 2008.

In 2018, he became a resident of the Broadmead continuing care retirement community in Cockeysville, Maryland splitting his time between there and the North Carolina mountains. He moved to Broadmead full-time in 2023 where he found vital new friendships and a community that supported him through the end of his life. He was diagnosed with cancer in May 2025 and passed away on June 8, 2025.

Since the age of 15 Walter considered himself a Unitarian. With his wife, Harriet, he was a member of Unitarian Universalist congregations in Des Moines, IA; Lansing, MI; New Orleans, LA; Franklin, NC; then later in Atlanta, GA and Towson, MD. He was always active in congregational affairs and served in many leadership and committee roles during his lifetime.

He also enjoyed traveling the world for professional reasons and personal enrichment, spending time in Colombia, Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, India, Scotland, South Africa, Indonesia and many other places. He ultimately visited all but one continent and all 50 U.S. states.

Perhaps nothing gave Walter more pleasure than spending time with his children and grandsons, whether at home or out in nature; as well as researching the family’s genealogy so he could pass that history on to them.

Walter is survived by his two children; Karen and Laird; Laird’s wife Susan; two grandsons, Jack and Ben; and the children of his brother Robert; Rob, Sarah and John and their many beautiful children.

Donations in his memory can be made to the Harriet & Walter Burnett Scholarship at the Tulane School of Public Health ( http://giving.tulane.edu/burnett ) or the Victor & Katharina Butterfield Endowed Scholarship ( here entering “Victor & Katharina Butterfield Endowed Scholarship” in the designation field.)