December’s Active Senior Living Resident Spotlight: Bummy Burstein
Active senior living resident, Bummy Burstein lives an amazing life. He’s made great contributions to the hearing & non-hearing communities all over the world. Gerald “Bummy” Burstein was born deaf in 1926 to two hearing parents in Brooklyn, NY.
Growing up, his parents were very active in the school’s Parent Teacher Association. They also took on leadership roles at P.S. 47 in Manhattan. Through their example, Bummy learned what it meant to truly be a leader. His nickname “Bummy” stemmed from his love of the Brooklyn Dodgers. As a strong fan of the famous team for many years, he earned the nickname “Bum”. To make it more formal, they extended it to Bummy.
Education & Teaching
As a young man, Bummy enjoyed traveling and was a Boy Scout. He later became an Eagle Scout and was part of the Order of the Arrow. During World War II, Bummy worked as a gift wrapper during war times. Bummy also has a younger brother, who is a neuro surgeon. He wanted to know what made Bummy tick, but to this day he’s never figured it out.
Bummy moved to Washington, D.C. to attend Gallaudet University. He lived there for three years and studied Education. At the time, educational opportunities weren’t like they are today. As a deaf person, you only had two options, a printer or teacher. Today the deaf can be whatever they want to be; it doesn’t matter if you can hear or not.
When Bummy graduated from Gallaudet, he moved to Minnesota. He taught math at the Minnesota School for the Deaf for 15 years. He enjoyed the opportunity, and although he taught math, he also was able to teach life itself to the kids. While in Minnesota, Bummy also took flying lessons as a student pilot.
Pursing Excellence
Bummy met Theresa, the woman he’d later marry, while attending Gallaudet. She also taught with him in Minnesota. The two were close friends for awhile before tying the knot. They married and were together for 5.5 years. Unfortunately, a drunk driver killed Theresa in an automobile accident. Bummy never remarried because he “didn’t want to disappoint all the ladies all over the world.”
He later moved to California. While living there he received his master’s degree from California State University of Northridge. From there he became a teacher and administrator at the Riverside School for the Deaf. Upon retirement, he continued as an adjunct at Riverside City College. He taught a few more years before completely retiring. Altogether, Bummy has 52 years in the field of education. Although he is no longer a teacher, he continues teaching. He works with our staff daily in learning how to effectively communicate with him.
Passion & Parliamentary Procedures
Over the years, Bummy was actively involved in many organizations for both the non-hearing and hearing. He’s a proud member of the Gallaudet University Alumni Association and served as President for three years. He was the first deaf person to endow a chair at Gallaudet. He was also involved in the California Association for the Deaf, National Congress of Jewish Deaf, Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf and World Congress of Jewish Deaf.
Bummy also has a passion for parliamentary procedure. He gave over 200 parliamentary workshops all over the U.S. and internationally. These Parliamentary workshops benefited organizations by teaching them how meetings should proceed. He even wrote a book and video, Bummy’s Basic Parliamentary Procedures, on the topic. This work allowed him to travel extensively. He’s been just about everywhere except South America and Asia. Among his many impressive accomplishments, Bummy is most proud of receiving an honorary doctorate from Gallaudet. In addition, he’s proud of becoming certified as a professional parliamentarian.
We are so excited to welcome Bummy to the Renaissance Village Family. We appreciate his insight on the deaf community and look forward to learning more from him.
