Wilber N. Burns
November 18, 1879-February 17, 1964
The Niles Daily Star (Niles, Berrien Co., MI), Friday, February 17, 1964, page 1, column 2
PROMINENT NILES ATTORNEY DIES AT FLINT TODAY
Wilbur N. Burns, 76, Was Prominent in Civic and Business Affairs
Atty. Wilber N. burns, 78, of 544 Oak Street, senior partner in the law firm of Burns, Mollison and Hadsell here, died at 7 a.m. today in the home of his son-in-law and daughter, Dr. and Mrs. Edwin P. Vary, of Flint.
The veteran attorney had been ill since September when he entered the hospital at Flint. Since his release from the hospital, he had been at the home of his daughter.
HE WAS BORN Nov. 18, 1879, in Pekin, Niagara County, N.Y., the son of Newton and Mary Maxon Burns and moved to Michigan with his family at the age of eight. He was married Sept. 28, 1904, to Grace Bartram of St. Louis, Mich. She preceded him in death on June 4, 1951.
His family settled in St. Louis where he graduated from high school in 1897. He taught school for two years before entering the University of Michigan where he graduated with his law degree in 1902. On Aug. 1 of that year he was admitted to the bar and shortly after that opened his practice in Niles. He held the distinction of introducing the first typewriter to the city.
In 1903 he formed a partnership with Charles E. Sweet of Dowagiac, with whom he practiced until 1907. The partnership was dissolved at that time and he operated alone until 1910 when he formed a partnership with Arthur J. Hillman. He practiced alone again from 1913 to 1919. In August, 1919, Philip A. Hadsell, now circuit Judge, entered the firm and became a partner in 1920. In 1951, Andrew R. Mollison of Detroit entered the firm as a partner, and 1954 Philip A. Hadsell, Jr. because a partner in the firm.
DURING HIS 53 years of active practice he gained recognition as (continued on Page Two) a specialist in corporation law and served as attorney for the Indiana and Michigan Electric Company, and National-Standard company.
He served as city attorney from 1959 to 1963, was president of the State Bar of Michigan from 1945 to 1946, was president of the Berrien County Bar Association from 1938 to 1939 and service as a county circuit court commissioner from 1904 to 1908.
He was elected commissioner of the State Bar in 1938 and held that post until 1946. He also was a member of the American bar Association and the American Judicature Society.
ACTIVE IN ALL civic affairs he was a charter member and first president of the Niles Rotary Club, served as a member of the Board of Education, was secretary-treasurer of the Niles Hotel Association and served as an elder and Sunday school superintendent of the First Presbyterian Church where he was a member.
He was a member of the St. Joseph Valley Chapter of the Masonic Lodge, holding the thirty-second degree.
He also was a member of the Fraternal Order of Police and held life memberships in the Knights of Pythias and the Elks Lodge.
Surviving besides his daughter are: two sisters, Mrs. M.E. Moore, of Alma, Mich., and Mrs. Clare Rogers, of Sherman Oaks, Calif, and four grandchildren, Mrs. Gerald Robbins, of LaCrosse, Wis., Wilber Burns Vary, of Lansing, James Vary, of Flint, and Miss Janette Vary, also of Flint. His son, Robert Burns, died in 1927.
Funeral services will be held at 3 p.m., Sunday in the First Presbyterian Church here with the pastor, Dr. T.Mi. Greenhoe, officiating. Burial will be in the mausloeum[sic] at Silverbrook Cemetery. Friends may call at the Kiger Funeral Home here Saturday afternoon.