Roger N. Burns

Roger Nolan Burns, 74, of Stevensville, passed away at home after a brief illness. Born in Kalamazoo to Robert and Genevieve Burns, who preceded him in death, as did his brother Robert Burns II, sister Margaret Adams, and son Thomas Edward Burns. Friends are asked to join family in a Celebration of Life Memorial Gathering, Saturday, February 25th, between 2 – 4 p.m. at Kerley-Starks & Menchinger Family Funeral Home, 2650 Niles Rd, St. Joseph, Michigan. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Hospice at Home. He was a graduate of State High in Kalamazoo. He attended Kalamazoo College and graduated with B.A. and M.A. degrees from Western Michigan University. He also took post-graduate classes at Purdue, Michigan State University, and the University of North Carolina. On January 17th, 1953 he married Marilyn Charlotte Shell. He entered the teaching profession in biology and chemistry, and taught at Otsego, Portage Central, and St. Joseph High Schools. He was a member of the football coaching staffs at both Portage and St. Joseph schools, and sincerely enjoyed both teaching and coaching. Upon leaving teaching and coaching, he entered into business in Stevensville and Mishawaka, Indiana, from which he retired in 1994. He most enjoyed time walleye fishing in the Upper Peninsula, gardening, family and sporting events, and attending his grandson’s football games. Cremation has taken place. He will be sadly missed by his surviving wife Marilyn, his sons, Michael, Gary (Michelle), Roger Jr. (Christine Braun); two grandsons, Steven and Christopher Burns, and nieces and nephews. An adage he lived by, read, “when the great scorer comes to write against your name, he writes not that you won or lost, but how you played the game.”