Charles E. Burgin

Charles Edgar Burgin was born to Lotus Bartley Burgin and Ethel Melissa Croy Burgin in Duncan, Oklahoma, on March 15, 1935. He passed away peacefully from this life on January 21, 2024, at his home in Dallas, Texas.

Charles was the second youngest of eight siblings (six girls and two boys). The eight Burgin children were raised very modestly in a small three-bedroom house in Duncan, where in his childhood (and through his high school years) Charles worked various assigned jobs in his father’s local grocery store, which imbued him at a very young age with a tremendous work ethic and resolute sense of duty and steadfast loyalty to his family, fellow workers, and customers.

Charles graduated from Duncan High School in 1953 after having played varsity football for the 1951 Oklahoma state champion Duncan Demons and American Legion baseball in the summers. After a two-year stint in the US Army, where he was stationed in Alaska following basic training in Fort Bliss, Texas, he returned home to Duncan and worked for a short while for a prominent local retailer, Buddy Campbell, at his “Campbell’s of Duncan” men’s clothing store (his first job in men’s retail clothing), before moving on to Stillwater and enrolling at Oklahoma State University, where he eventually earned his undergraduate degree in Marketing.

In Stillwater on a blind date in 1958, Charles met the true love of his life, Shirley Gaile Humphrey, whom he married in April 1959. In Stillwater, Shirley gave birth to their first son, Jon, In December 1959. Their second son, Jay, was born in July 1963 in Lubbock, Texas (where Charles was engaged outside of work in a barbershop quartet and also his love of gospel music). In their first few years of marriage, the couple lived at various times in Stillwater, Carlsbad, NM and Lubbock, TX, during which Charles embarked on and pursued enthusiastically, with great enjoyment, a career in men’s specialty retail clothing that ultimately spanned over 65 years until the very end of his life.

In 1964, in response to the persistent wooing efforts of former Park Cities businessman and store owner Charles “Cully” Culwell, the couple moved with their two young sons to Dallas, Texas, where Charles had accepted a position with a traditional men’s clothier established in 1920 called “The Varsity Shop”, which is now well-known as Culwell & Son. In Dallas, they continued to raise their two sons and a daughter, Jill, who was born in July 1968. He was an active member of Wilshire Baptist Church for the last 35 years, serving the church as a deacon and in other different roles, including the directorship of a Sunday School group that referred to themselves affectionately as “Charlie’s Angels”. It was in this city, especially in the neighborhood close by Dan D. Rogers Elementary School and Wilshire Baptist Church, that Charles and Shirley created a legacy of memories to last a lifetime for those who entered their home.

Charlie Burgin was a remarkable man and a kind, devoted husband, father, uncle, grandfather, great-grandfather, and friend to many. His compassion, character, and wonderful sense of humor will truly be missed by all who knew him. His impact in men’s specialty retailing (in the local community at the store-level as well as nationally in the industry) was widely acclaimed throughout his career, including being named in 1987 as the “Menswear Mart’s Retailer of the Year”. Over the span of decades through his work at Culwell & Son and his close involvement with his family and their friends and relatives, he garnered countless friendships and amiable acquaintances with employees, former employees, store owners and salespeople in the men’s retail clothing industry, as well as other people from all walks of life, all of whom maintained an ardent fondness for his friendship and engagement with them. And whether it was through coaching his sons’ YMCA youth football teams, providing someone a bridge-job or a college student with their first real job (and mentoring them along the way), fitting a boy with his first navy blazer or a young college graduate with a starter suit wardrobe for the launch of his professional career, or guiding a member of the Dallas business elite demanding the utmost in his wardrobe to reflect elegant sophistication in the traditional/classic look and fit, Charlie met people where they were in their station of life with the same attentive focus, integrity, and sincere goodwill. These actions over the course of time (and so many others which cannot be adequately described here) positively impacted numerous people over three generations who crossed his path and connected with him at work, church, or in his personal life. Inasmuch as it is fitting for some to consider Culwell & Son as a classic Dallas institution (with its rare history as a 100-year family-owned business in the Park Cities), then, for those regular patrons who entered the store at any time over the past 60 years, it is more than appropriate for them to have considered Charlie Burgin’s reliable, iconic presence there on the sales floor each day as a venerable individual institution of the community himself. A special era of the Culwell & Son store has passed, and he will be greatly missed by many.

Charles is preceded in death by his parents, one brother, six sisters, and his wife Shirley. He is survived by his three grown children: Jon B. Burgin and wife Janet; Jay C. Burgin and wife Lori, both of Dallas, TX; and Jill Burgin Baker and husband Ken, residents of Allen, TX. He is also survived by nine grandchildren, one great-grandson, and another expectant great-grandchild, all of Dallas, TX: Blake Fitzpatrick Burgin; Braeden Charles Burgin, his wife Lauren, and their son Braeden Reece Burgin; Brooks Robert Burgin and his wife Allie; Alexandra Elise Burgin Nieto, her husband Chris, and their soon expected child Charlie; Olivia Lee Burgin; Channing Louise Baker, Rhett Harrison Baker, Sheridan Margaret Baker, and Brock Austin Baker. Also surviving him are 10 nieces, five nephews, 10 grandnieces, 12 grandnephews, and numerous great grandnieces/nephews.

A memorial service celebrating the life of Charles Burgin will be held at 1:00 PM on Friday, February 23, 2024, at Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.

Memorial donations may be made to the Wilshire Baptist Church Pastoral Residency Program, at 4316 Abrams Road, Dallas, TX; the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN; or a charity of your choice. Condolences may be offered at www.sparkman-hillcrest.com