10 Facts About Ambrose Burke

Monsignor Ambrose J Burke was an English professor and Catholic priest who served as the eighth president of Saint Ambrose University from 1940 through 1956.

Ambrose Burke eventually acquired a master's degree and a doctorate in English from Yale University and returned to St Ambrose in 1921 as an instructor.

Ambrose Burke was appointed the school's president in 1940 and served for sixteen years, then the longest tenure of any St Ambrose president.

Ambrose Burke worked as a pastor and a chaplain for many decades after and remained active until shortly before his death in October 1998, at the age of 102.

Ambrose Burke then moved on to St Ambrose College, but was expelled in his second year when his plans to go carousing were discovered by the school authorities.

Ambrose Burke was not permitted to return to the seminary for a year and a half.

Ambrose Burke was eventually ordained a priest of the Catholic Church in 1921 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Ambrose Burke left the school in 1956 after accepting a position as pastor of St Mary's Catholic Church.

Ambrose Burke remained at St Mary's until 1973, when he reached his mandatory retirement, and then served for over a decade as chaplain at the city's Mercy Hospital.

Ambrose Burke died on October 6,1998, at the age of 102, in Clinton and was buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Davenport.