Richard Burger
Throughout his life and career, Richard “Dick” Burger supported those who could not always support themselves.
In the 1960s, Burger supported and helped Iowa City adopt the Fair Housing Ordinance, said former University of Iowa president Willard “Sandy” Boyd. Boyd was chairman of a human rights committee that later would create the ordinance, which helped connect UI and Iowa City and provide housing for blacks.
Later in life, Burger served as president of Systems Unlimited, an organization that continues to this day to help people with developmental disabilities live independently. Burger also started the Systems Unlimited Foundation and an annual golf fundraiser for the organization that bears his name.
Born in 1925 and a lifelong Iowa Citian, Burger graduated from City High in 1943 and from UI with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering in 1950. He also served as a U.S. Navy officer during World War II and the Korean War.
He married Shirley Hostetler in 1947 and worked for his family business, the Burger Construction Co. until 1986. After his retirement, he was a construction consultant.
Burger was unanimously elected mayor on his second day as a council member in 1964. He was re-elected the following year and was the city’s first two-term mayor in nearly a decade. Aside from serving on the city council, Burger was on the Iowa City Planning Commission, Johnson County Zoning Board and the Regional Planning Commission and was named president of the Iowa City Chamber of Commerce in 1972.
He was elected to the City High Hall of Fame in 1988.
“He was just a real giving guy, and people didn’t even know about it,” council member Dean Thornberry said at the time of Burger’s death in 2002. “He was a real class act.”