Obituary of Bernard Burstein

Bernard Burstein, age 87, passed away December 28, 2018. Bernie was born on April 15, 1931 in St. Cloud MN. He graduated from Tech High in 1949, where he was active in music activities. Bernie served in the U.S. Coast Guard for three years during the Korean War. After discharge, he attended the University of Minnesota and graduated with honors on a Friday in 1957 and on the next Monday, joined the Prudential Insurance Company Regional Office in Minneapolis. He started as a college trainee and retired as a Division Manager 35 years later. Bernie married twice. He had a son with his first wife and inherited three daughters from his second wife, a widow when they married. When he died, Bernie’s family included four children, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Bernie loved Glenn Miller style big band music. He helped start a seventeen-piece big band, The Execs, in Minneapolis and played saxophone and clarinet with them for thirty some years. During his years with the band, they played for many dances in Minnesota and traveled, at their own expense, to play in New Orleans, Las Vegas, and Norway. Bernie stopped playing with the band when he retired from Prudential. Bernie’s ashes will be buried in Lakewood Cemetery next to his second wife, Carol, who died in 2007. With a lot of love and help from his family, Bernie lived with progressive MS for the last 40 years of his life. He moved into the Waters on 50^th, an assisted living facility in Minneapolis, in June of 2014. A celebration of Bernie’s life will be held at The Waters (3500 W 50^th St, Minneapolis) from 2:00 to 4:00 on Tuesday, January 8, 2019. Bernie prefers any memorials for him be given to the donor’s favorite charity.