David Burke

One of the best known insurance and financial men of Montreal was the late David Burke, who passed away on December 5, 1913. He was born in Charlottetown, P. E. I., in 1850, being the youngest son of Edward and Mary (Acorn) Burke, both of whom were natives of Prince Edward Island. He received his early education in the schools of that province. In early manhood he turned his attention to the insurance business, being but sixteen years of age when he entered upon the field of labor in which he was to attain to importance, making his name one well known in insurance circles not only in Canada but also in the United States. In 1869 he came to Montreal, where he was associated in business with his brother, the late Walter Burke, then general manager for Canada of the New York Life Insurance Company. On the death of the latter in 1879 the company retired from Canada owing to differences with the insurance department at Ottawa. In 1883, being willing to conform to the regulations set down by this department, the company reentered Canada, and Mr. David Burke was appointed general manager. In 1897 he retired from his connection with this firm to organize an insurance company of his own, the Royal Victoria Life Insurance Company, which was absorbed by the Sun Life in 1911. He thus bent his energies to administrative direction and executive control and his opinions were largely accepted as authority upon matters connected with the complex problems of insurance and the control of the business. In 1882 he was elected an associate of the British Institute of Actuaries, being one of its oldest members, and in 1897 was made a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society of Great Britain. In 1904 he was honored with election to the vice presidency of the Economic and Statistical Society of Montreal and in 1906 was chosen president of the Canadian Life Insurance Officers Association. For two years he held the presidency of the Life Managers Association of Canada, a body formed solely of the executive heads of insurance companies in Canada, each company being represented in the association by only one member. He studied every phase of the insurance business with a thoroughness that made his opinions standard, and he was the author of a valuable paper published in 1908 entitled “Insurance as a National Economy.” The Montreal Witness spoke of him as one “recognized as a most capable insurance administrator,” and his contemporaries and colleagues speak of his business ability and resourcefulness in terms of high admiration.

Mr. Burke was married in 1875 to Miss Rose Maclear, the youngest daughter of the late Thomas Maclear, founder of the Maclear Publishing Company of Toronto, and they were parents of four sons and two daughters, as follows: Edmund A., the noted vocalist; Louis, of New York; Alan, of Boston; Maurice N., of Montreal; Mrs. Fred C. Budden, of Montreal; and Miss Marjorie Burke, of Montreal.

Mr. Burke was a member of the St. James Club and in religious faith an Anglican, while his political belief placed him in the position of an imperial protectionist. His views of life were those of a broad-minded man who delved deep into the questions of vital importance and who proved himself the master of those forces which made up his life’s experience.