Celebrating Ken Burger’s life Thursday Oct. 29
October 26, 2015
Instructions for visitors and Ken Burger Scholarship announcement
CHARLESTON, S.C.− A celebration of the life of Charleston author and newspaper columnist Ken Burger will be held at 10:30 a.m., on Thursday, Oct. 29, at The Citadel’s Summerall Chapel. Family and friends requested that the service be held on campus following Mr. Burger’s death on Oct. 20 and have requested that the ceremony be open to the public.
After the celebration, guests will be invited to attend a reception at the college’s Mark Clark Hall, which is next to the chapel. Sweet tea will be served in keeping with Burger’s book, Baptized in Sweet Tea: A Collection of Ken Burger’s Columns Celebrating the South. He grew up in the small-town of Allendale, South Carolina, where he claimed many times to have been “baptized in sweet tea” himself. The book was released in November of 2011, shortly after he retired as a newspaper journalist.
In keeping with Mr. Burger’s wishes, Baptized in Sweet Tea will be sold in The Citadel bookstore following the service and going forward. Proceeds from the sales will benefit a newly named Ken Burger Scholarship to be managed by The Citadel Brigadier Foundation. The foundation provides assistance to approximately 225 cadet-student-athletes at The Citadel annually.
Preceding his 30-year career as an award-winning newspaper sports writer and columnist, Tech Sgt. Burger served for two decades in the United States Air Force Reserves, primarily with the 315th Airlift Wing, Joint Base Charleston. Full details about the services as well as Mr. Burger’s obituary can be found here.
Guests attending the celebration are encouraged to arrive early due to very limited parking on campus through the Lesesne or Hagood gates. The Citadel Pubic Safety team will direct traffic along the Avenue of Remembrance until spaces are full, and then into nearby Hampton Park. The city is allowing visitors to leave cars in specific areas of the park during the hours of the celebration, under the direction of the Charleston Police Department.
