Benjamin Burtt will be remembered by his colleagues and students as a pleasant, organized professor with a passion for teaching and a great influence over those he taught.

The former Syracuse University professor emeritus died at age 91 on Feb. 23 in Columbus, Ohio. He taught chemistry at SU for 47 years.

‘He was so professional. He was so sure of himself. He knew what he was going to do, and he developed that in his students’ minds,’ said Sally Mitchell, a 1982 SU alumna. ‘He really loved what he did.’

Mitchell, now a chemistry teacher at East Syracuse-Minoa High School, keeps a photo of Burtt from the 1940s in her classroom, and Burtt’s son gave her Burtt’s original ‘magic’ chemistry demonstration book. She said she models her teaching style after the late professor.

Burtt was well known for his lecture on water in his freshman chemistry class toward the end of each semester. In that lecture, Burtt would perform various experiments that were both entertaining and informative.

‘Everything he did was funny, and he kept a straight face the whole time,’ said Mitchell. ‘It was the most entertaining chemistry demo show that I’ve ever seen.’

The water lecture will be recreated and performed June 21 in Stolkin Auditorium, Mitchell said, as a public event in honor of Burtt. She will be using flasks, test tubes and beakers that Burtt handed down to her during the experiments.

Mitchell attended Burtt’s water lecture each year during her time at school, and she credits it as her inspiration to become a chemistry teacher. She said Burtt’s son, Academy Award-winning sound designer Benjamin Burtt Jr., has put together tapes of the lecture on DVD to preserve it.

Aside from his love for teaching chemistry, Burtt is remembered for another passion: bird watching.

Burtt knew birds backward and forward, said Roger Hahn, assistant professor emeritus of chemistry at SU. Burtt penned a weekly column for The Post-Standard for more than 50 years and wrote passionately about birds in an educational way, Mitchell said.

Hahn recalled seeing Burtt come to work with his head bandaged one day in the 1970s. He said Burtt had climbed a tree to try and observe baby owls but had been attacked by the mother, a tribute to his willingness to go that far to get some information.

Both Hahn and Don Dittmer, professor emeritus of chemistry, noted Burtt’s organized teachings, grading style and enjoyable, understandable lectures.

‘He always had a good sense of humor, and he was always highly organized in his teaching and lectures,’ Dittmer said.

Hahn said Burtt was always concerned with grading his students fairly, designing his exams in a specific way and analyzing the results afterward, something from which Hahn said he learned. Hahn said Burtt, who started teaching in 1946, was friendly and welcoming when Hahn joined the SU faculty in 1965.

Burtt is survived by his wife, Dorothy, his daughter, Ruth, and his son.

Said Hahn: ‘I think he has left a legacy to his family, his students and the community, and that is something to be proud of.’

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Published on March 4, 2012 at 12:00 pm

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