Burl Brim Obituary

Burl John Brim
 
Burl John Brim, age 84 of Wellington, Texas, died August 22, 2016 at his home on the family farm south of Wellington.
 
Burl was born north of Hollis, Oklahoma on October 6, 1931 to the late John Lee Brim and Roxy Mae Kuykendall Brim, both Oklahoma natives.  When Burl was a toddler they moved to Texas.
 
They were a part of the Loco, Texas, community then the Wellington, Texas, community.  Burl graduated from Wellington High School in 1949, went to Bethany Peniel College in Oklahoma as a freshman and then enlisted in the US Navy as the Korean War was in full swing.  He trained as a hospital corpsman.  Then he became a US Marine as part of the fleet marine force sent to the front lines in Korea.
 
After discharge in 1954, Burl became a policeman in Colorado then a student back in Texas.  At West Texas State University in Canyon he earned both a B.S. degree and a M.S. degree before he went on to the University lf Denver to earn a M. A. and a Doctor of Education degree.
 
During those years Burl taught fifth grade in Canyon and taught at Paramount Terrace in Amarillo.  He became director of Elementary Science in Amarillo.  He also drove a school bus in Canyon, worked as a physical director at the YMCA in Amarillo and sold paint at Sears in Amarillo.  He won a fellowship to pursue his doctorate and another master’s degree at the University of Denver.
 
The era of higher education had begun.  Burl became a full professor at West Texas State in Canyon, Chairman of the Education Department at Southern Oregon College.  He enjoyed sabbatical experiences at school districts in Oregon.
 
Upon retirement in Oregon along came a move back to Texas when his dad passed away.  Then began a new teaching experience – teaching three- and four- year olds in Memphis, Texas.  He was known as “Mister B”.  This age group was one of Burl’s favorites.  The years offered graduate students, college students, high school students and elementary students.  Then he experienced another retirement.
 
Forty-two years of teaching were added to the years of being a prize winning water colorist, poet, farmer, public speaker and community volunteer.
 
Burl and his wife Mary were married for 62 years.  Their family consisted of six children, many grand children and great-grandchildren. 
 
The six children are Burl, Jr., and wife Julie of Ashland, Ore; Shelly Morton and her sons, Josh and Eric of Wellington; daughter Shannon who passed in 2000 and her children, Whitney and husband Hamady of Chico, California, and their children Abdoulaye and Salle’, and Brady of California and Sterling of Oregon; Mary Katrina and husband Charlie of Fairbanks, Alaska, and their children Aly and husband Patrick of Minnesota, Sayre and wife Leslie of Ohio and son Silas, Kennan and Joey of Wyoming and Bryana of Minnesota; Heather of Colorado; and Bary and wife Colleen of Wellington and sons Josh and Clayton and wife Lisa of Colorado.
 
One of Burl’s grandsons shared his thoughts as follows:
“My grandfather, Burl Brim, passed away last night.  He left an indelible imprint on the lives of many of us.  He was a poet and a farmer, a professor and a teller of tales, he painted, he taught, he laughed and more than anything he loved – always unconditionally.
 
“I know now that the man he was, that I looked up to so much, wasn’t born so much as made across a lifetime of hard earned experiences.  Raising six children will surely teach a man about what is actually important in life and what is only temporal.
 
 
“I am consoled knowing that I carry some small part of him with me everywhere I go and that his adventures will continue through all of us.
Papaw, you will be forever missed.”
 
On Sunday, August 28, 2016, a memorial gathering was held at the farm overlooking the acres that he loved so much.  “Always keep it simple”, Burl would say.  Pastor Gene Weinette offered the scriptures and a prayer for all of us.  The Wellington Opportunity Center Board of Directors and the 1954 Study Club provided lunch for the family right on the farm.  We all reminisced about our yesterdays with Burl.
 
Friends and neighbors are donating to the Opportunity Center and the Methodist Church in Burl’s memory.  His ashes will be spread by air over the marsh and farm at a later date as the helicopters are fighting fires on the West Coast right now.
 
Arrangements were entrusted to Adams Funeral Home of Wellington.
 
 
Published in the Red River Sun, Wednesday, August 31, 2016.