Born in Middlesex County, Ontario, to Arthur Edward Burr and Emily Rose Vernon, Burr had a long career as a high school teacher at Walkerville Collegiate Institute where he taught Latin and Greek for 34 years.[1]
His son, Dave Burr served one term as the mayor of Windsor, Ontario. In addition to his son, Burr had two daughters, Sheila and Maureen, and was pre-deceased by his wife, Dorothy.
While his tenure as an MPP was spent in Opposition, he was known as a forward-thinking member, asking questions about solar power and the effects of freon as far back as 1974 and was regarded as one of the first politicians to take up the cause of second-hand tobacco smoke.[5]