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Frederic Lister Burk

Frederic Lister Burk[1]

Male 1862 - 1924  (61 years)

Personal Information    |    Media    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    Event Map    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name Frederic Lister Burk  [2, 3, 4, 5] 
    Born 1 Sep 1862  Blenheim, Kent County, Ontario, Canada Find all individuals with events at this location  [3] 
    Gender Male 
    FamilySearch ID KH8F-W1Q 
    Died 12 Jun 1924  [3] 
    Person ID I6951  Main
    Last Modified 12 Oct 2018 

    Father Erastus J. Burk,   b. 29 Feb 1816, Darlington Township, Durham County, Ontario, Canada Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 25 May 1897, Coloma, El Dorado County, CA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 81 years) 
    Mother Matilda Turner,   b. 1 Jul 1822, Tavistock, Devon, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 21 Sep 1905, Mountain View, Santa Clara Co., CA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 83 years) 
    Married 13 Jun 1842  Darlington Township, Durham County, Ontario, Canada Find all individuals with events at this location  [6, 7, 8, 9] 
    Notes 
    Married:
    • Possibly married in Leeds, ON abt 1842 [10]
    Family ID F111  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Caroline Foster Frear,   b. 10 Mar 1871, Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States of America Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 11 Aug 1954, Oakland, Alameda County, California Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 83 years) 
    Married 30 Sep 1898  Alameda, California, United States Find all individuals with events at this location  [11] 
    Children 
     1. Fear Frederick Burk,   b. 14 May 1900, Oakland, Alameda Co., CA Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 17 Mar 1978  (Age 77 years)
    +2. Dean Turner Burk,   b. 21 Mar 1904, Oakland, Alameda Co., CA Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 6 Oct 1989, Washington, District Of Columbia, District of Columbia, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 85 years)
     3. Norval Freer Burk,   b. 8 Jun 1905, Kentfield, Marin, California Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 15 Nov 1987, Oakland, Alameda Co., CA Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 82 years)
     4. Bois Frederick Burk,   b. 4 Nov 1906, Kentfield, Marin, California Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 5 Jun 1993, Corte Madera, Marin, California Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 86 years)
    Last Modified 12 Oct 2018 
    Family ID F2628  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Event Map
    Link to Google MapsBorn - 1 Sep 1862 - Blenheim, Kent County, Ontario, Canada Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Photos
    Fred Burk    		Fred Burk
    Erastus Burk and Family    		Erastus Burk and Family
    (Judi Wallbridge McCrae collection) Notation on back: Fred Burk married Miss Freer, Bell Burk Foster, Julia Burk Gates, Mirrette Burk Campbell, Ada Burk Stevens, Grandma Burk (Mathilda Turner), Grandpa Burk. (from left to right but it doesn't say)

    Documents
    1870 Census - Erastus Burk Family    		1870 Census - Erastus Burk Family
    Burk - Frear Marriage (index entry)    		Burk - Frear Marriage (index entry)
    Alameda, California

  • Notes 
    • San Francisco State University - "Burk Hall"

      Named for San Francisco State University founding president Frederic Lister Burk, Burk Hall is home to the College of Education.Frederic Lister Burk worked six years as a journalist for Bay Area newspapers before beginning his teaching career, and then supported himself through graduate school at Stanford by teaching in public and private schools in the Bay Area. Burk made SF State's entrance requirements the most rigorous in the state, with a program that stressed the importance of the "teaching personality" and practical experience. He believed so strongly in the quality of SF State's student-taught training school that he placed his own children in it. Under Burk's leadership, SF State gained an international reputation for its "Individual Instruction" methods, which included self-paced work to meet the needs of students with differing abilities. He chose Experientia Docet -- "Experience Teaches" (Seneca) -- as the school's motto.

      Dictionary of American Biography notes:

      Burk, Frederic Lister (Sept. 1, 1862 - June 12, 1924), educator, was born in Blenheim, Ontario, Canada, of an American father, Erastus, and an English mother, Matilda Turner. At the age of seven he was brought to California, the family settling in the town of Coloma, El Dorado County, a spot made famous by the discovery of gold there in 1848. Graduating from the Sacramento City High School, Burk entered the University of California and was graduated with the degree B.L. in 1883. When Stanford University opened in 1891, he became one of the first candidates for the M.A. degree which was conferred upon him in 1892. In the immediate years following, he was successively teacher in a country school and in a military academy, and then became a writer of feature articles for various San Francisco journals. The latter experience colored his whole career, giving him access to the press and also a sense of news values.

      As a writer he became interested in psychology, and in 1896 he went to study under G. Stanley Hall at Clark University, where he received the Ph.D. degree in 1898. During the same year he was married to Caroline Frear (B.S., Wellesley, M.A., Stanford). In the following year he became president of the State Normal School at San Francisco. This office made him automatically a member of the California State Board of Education in which capacity he served until the Board's reorganization in 1911. In his normal school for a number of years everything was subordinated to psychology. Later, becoming disappointed in the results obtained, he threw out psychology, not to take it up again until tests and measurements came to his attention.

      Burk became a challenger of accepted opinion in educational matters. He held that no subject should be put into the curriculum unless a case could be made out for it. First, let the subject prove its educational value, then add it to the course of study. His greatest contribution to educational progress was his theory of motivated individual instruction. Pioneering in that field, he held to his course in spite of criticism and indifference. As a public speaker he was unusual. Full of wit and sudden turns of thought, he depended on the intellectual force he could put back of his ideas rather than on persuasion. From the standpoint of inspiration he was a notable leader--especially in the loyalties he developed. There can be no doubt that his inspiring of a small group of men and women, including Carleton Washburne of Winnetka and Willard Beatty of Bronxville, will perpetuate his name and methods into the years ahead. He was the author of From Fundamental to Accessory in the Development of the Nervous System and of Movements (1898), his doctoral dissertation; A Study of the Kindergarten Problem in the Public Kindergartens of Santa Barbara, Calif., for the Year 1898-99 (1899), in collaboration with his wife; A Simplified Course of Study in Grammar (1912); In Re Everychild, A Minor vs. Lockstep Schooling (1915).

      FURTHER READINGS:
      [Who's Who in America, 1924-25; Bulls. of the San Francisco State Normal School; articles in the Sierra Ed. News and the Western Jour. of Ed. (both published in San Francisco); personal acquaintance; interviews with members of the family.]


      Source Citation   (MLA 7th Edition)
      "Frederic Lister Burk." Dictionary of American Biography. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 2 Jan. 2015.
      Document URL
      http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CBT2310016795&v=2.1&u=scruzpl&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w&asid=e32db8a90e3694800cbab8eb2b283cdd [12, 13]

    FamilySearch ID:

  • Sources 
    1. [SAuth] John Spencer Howell, Jr., John Spencer Howell, Jr., (http://www.jhowell.com/ jhowell@jhowell.com).

    2. [S1291] Erastus Burk Family Photo, Judy Wallbridge McRae collection, (The notation on the back is: Fred Burk married Miss Freer, Bell Burk Foster, Julia Burk Gates Mirrette Burk Campbell, Ada Burk Stevens, Grandma Burk (Mathilda Turner), Grandpa Burk. (probably from left to right but it doesn't say.)), Notation on back: "Fred Burk married Miss Freer" (Reliability: 0).

    3. [S672] IGI Index v5.0, (http://www.familysearch.org), "Frederic Lister Burk, b. 1 Sep 1862, Blenheim, Kent, Ontario, d. 12 Jun 1924, parents: Erastus Burk, Matilda Turner, Batch 8828602, Sheet 29, Call no. 1553285, Film" (Reliability: 0).

    4. [S671] 1880 U.S. Census, California, Alameda, Oakland, District 20 "Burke F., White, Male, age 17, son, single, b. Canada, father b. Canada, mother b. England. (Reliability: 0).

    5. [S690] 1870 U.S. Census, Year: 1870; Census Place: Township 9, Placer, California; Roll: M593_76; Page: 471B; Family History Library Film: 545575 Source Information Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com (Reliability: 3).

    6. [S860] Janice McEachran, Janice McEachran, 6 Nov 2003 (Reliability: 0).

    7. [S860] Janice McEachran, Janice McEachran, email 19 Nov 2004 (Reliability: 0).

    8. [S1788] Stevens Burk Family Tree on Ancestry, ivclb1, https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/69410486/person/42196964770/media/02845b31-736a-43dc-af7b-71ec32c1b910?destTreeId=153900399&destPersonId=212034089928&_phsrc=sLZ186&_destTreeId=153900399&destPersonId=212034089928&_phsrc=sLZ184&_phstart=default (Reliability: 3).

    9. [S1600] Ellen Smart, Ellen Smart, (ellensmart@mac.com), 11 Oct 2018 email to JSH (Reliability: 3).

    10. [S860] Janice McEachran, Janice McEachran, "marriage date of about 1842 for Erastus and Mathilda. They possibly were married in Leeds Ontario. but no proof as of yet."  email to JSH 19 Nov 2004 (Reliability: 0).

    11. [S1789] California Marriage Records, https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/8797/42292_1020601537_1425-00011/2109835?backurl=https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/70035390/person/30231260729/facts/citation/780040848103/edit/record (Reliability: 3).

    12. [S1788] Stevens Burk Family Tree on Ancestry, ivclb1, https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/69410486/person/42196965830/media/ad1423de-f013-4c48-8725-13c0a5a54e69?destTreeId=153900399&destPersonId=212034089928&_phsrc=sLZ184&_phstart=default (Reliability: 3).

    13. [S1788] Stevens Burk Family Tree on Ancestry, ivclb1, https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/43685339/person/27352029684/media/dfd96988-b983-44ad-81a2-03bbe827a11d?destTreeId=153900399&destPersonId=212034089928&_phsrc=sLZ186&_destTreeId=153900399&destPersonId=212034089928&_phsrc=sLZ184&_phstart=default (Reliability: 3).



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