Charles Andrew Burrus Jr. was born July 16, 1927 in Shelby, North Carolina, where he grew up with his parents, Charles Andrew and Velma (Martin) Burrus, and sister Elizabeth (Kitty). He passed away quietly May 16, 2022 in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, at the age of 94.
Charles is survived by the love of his life, his wife Barbara (Dunlevy), of Reynoldsburg, Ohio; his three children, Drew Burrus of New Jersey, Bonnie (Eric) Corwin of Colorado and John Burrus of California; and two grandchildren, Natalie (Jay) Corwin and Samuel Corwin.
Charles enlisted in the United States Navy near the close of World War II, serving aboard a light cruiser in the North Atlantic before attending college. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science cum laude from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina, in 1950 and then earned his Master of Science from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1951 and his doctorate from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, in 1955, all in physics.
Charles spent his career as a research physicist at AT&T Bell Labs in Holmdel from 1955 to 1996, and its successor, Lucent Bell Laboratories, from 1996 to 2002, doing pioneering work on small-area high-radiance semiconductor light-emitting diodes (LEDs). He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Pi Sigma and Sigma Xi and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Physical Society (APS), the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and the Optical Society of America (OSA, now Optica). Charles was the recipient of the 1982 David Richardson Medal in applied optics from the Optical Society of America.
After meeting Barbara at a graduate student mixer while at Duke, they married in Columbus, Ohio, in 1957 and raised their family in Fair Haven. Charles was active in the United Methodist Church of Red Bank, singing in the choir and serving on the music committee and the board of trustees, and at the Red Bank YMCA. He was a talented amateur photographer, developing his own black and white photographs in his home studio and later moving to digital photography at the urging of his son-in-law.
Charles and Barbara moved to Reynoldsburg in 2006 where he was active in the Wesley Ridge Retirement Community in Reynoldsburg and in the Broad Street United Methodist Church in Columbus, Ohio.
Charles spent most of his adult life involved in his three loves: family, research and photography. He believed in quietly doing for himself and he believed in always being ready and willing to help his family, his colleagues and his friends wherever and however needed, almost always with classical music playing in the background. He was a truly kind man.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that those wishing to honor Charles contribute to their local food bank or classical radio station. A celebration of life service will be planned for later this year.
The article originally appeared in the May 19 – 25, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
