Dr. John F. Burns ’56

Dr. John F. Burns ’56 died on December 23, 2009, in Augusta, Maine.

He was born in Gardiner on July 2, 1934, and graduated from Brunswick High School. He attended Bowdoin from 1952 to 1955, and graduated from the New York University School of Dentistry in 1959. He practiced general dentistry in Brunswick for four years before returning to New York for internships and residencies in oral surgery at New York University – Bellevue Medical Center. He then served as a clinical instructor of oral surgery at New York University School of Dentistry and worked in private practice Staten Island. He also was chief of dentistry and director of oral surgery at Beekman Downtown Hospital in Manhattan, and chief of oral and maxillofacial surgery and on the board of directors of World Health Administrative Services, Inc., which provided medical services to the World Trade Center. He returned to Maine in 1978 to practice oral and maxillofacial surgery in Augusta, retiring in 1996. In 1984, he was instrumental in establishing the Impaired Dentists Program for the Maine Dental Association, and continued to serve on the committee after his retirement. He is survived by his wife of 19 years, Sara Loomer, and their son Ian Ross; his first wife, Eileen Marie Donahue, whom he married in 1956, and their sons Dr. Sean Burns and Michael Burns and daughter Jane Burns; a sister, Liz Alden; six grandchildren, including Michelle Burns ’12; and his stepfather Wilfred Lajoie.