J. Herbert Burke

Who was J. Herbert Burke?

J. Herbert Burke was a Republican U.S. Representative from Florida who served from 1967 to 1979.

He was born in Chicago Illinois, where he attended the public schools, the defunct Central YMCA College, and then Northwestern University in nearby Evanston, Illinois. He graduated in 1940 from Kent College of Law in Chicago.

Burke served in the United States Army in the European Theatre from 1942 to 1945, was awarded the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, the European Theater Medal, and the American Theater Ribbon, and was discharged with the rank of captain.

He was admitted to the bar in 1940 and practiced in Chicago from 1940 to 1949, and in Hollywood, Florida, from 1949 to 1968. In 1952, Burke was elected Republican commissioner in Broward County and served in that capacity until 1967. He was a Republican State committeeman from 1954 to 1958. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Eighty-fourth Congress in a special election held on January 11, 1955.

Burke served as delegate to Republican National Conventions in 1968, 1972, and 1976. In 1968, he was a member of the Republican Platform Committee. In 1956, he was appointed by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the Southeastern Advisory Board of Small Business.