The Open Society Foundations Remember “Bo” Burt
By Kathleen Foley
The Open Society Foundations mourn the untimely death of a treasured adviser and colleague, Robert “Bo” Burt, the Alexander M. Bickel Professor Emeritus of Law at Yale Law School, who died suddenly at the age of 75 this month at his country home.
Burt joined the board of Open Society’s Project on Death in America at its inception in 1993 and played a pivotal role in the creation and implementation of the project, which focused on transforming the culture of dying in the United States.
He brought to the endeavor his expertise in law, medicine, religion, and culture—and an abiding belief that the project could improve the care of the dying through initiatives he helped to create and nurture. He was passionate about supporting young grantees and clinicians, and he engaged with them as an adviser, mentor, and colleague. Burt participated actively in annual retreats, discussing, debating, and encouraging the multiple initiatives faculty scholars were engaged in. As an extraordinary mentor, teacher, and friend to those whose work he reviewed, he left a lasting legacy.
Burt worked tirelessly with the board to address the need for programs on grief and bereavement at a community level, as well as challenging regulatory policies that interfered with patient access to pain relief and palliative care. He took time to join palliative care clinicians as they made their rounds, to make home visits with nurse clinicians, and to attend medical conferences as both an observer and guest speaker.
He also wrote expansively on the subject, provoking deeper discussion and understanding of the psychological and social forces in America’s culture of death. In an interview about the project, he said, “I have come to feel it is the most constructive thing I have been involved with in my career.”
Those of us who knew him benefited enormously from engaging with this brilliant and generous friend. His life and work have made a difference.
Our condolences to his wife Linda, and to his daughters Anne and Jessica and their families.
Until January 2015, Dr. Kathleen M. Foley was the medical director of the International Palliative Care Initiative of the Open Society Public Health Program.
