1924 MILWAUKEE SPEEDSKATING MEDAL RETURNED TO FAMILY

Who is Herbert C. Burr?

That's what the folks from Veldhoven, a village in the Netherlands, wanted to know after finding Burr's 1924 speedskating medal from Milwaukee.

The dirt-caked medal was discovered in someone's garden in the 1980s or thereabouts, alongside the road where American and other allied forces rolled in when they freed the Dutch people from Nazi occupation during World War II.

This is the most intriguing aspect for the village.

"We think that this medal had been lost by one of our liberators, coming from Wisconsin, in September/October 1944!" Jan van den Boom wrote in an email this summer to the Wisconsin Speedskating Association, the successor to the Wisconsin Skating Association, which awarded the medal to Burr.

Clearly, America's military help used to be met with more enthusiasm than we see these days in the Middle East.

So if the medal was found 25 or more years ago, why is this coming up now?

Liberation came 70 years ago this month, and van den Boom serves on a committee that arranged an exhibition to mark the occasion. The group made a public plea for articles, photographs and other items related to the war.

"And so came the skating medal of Herbert C. Burr in my life," van den Boom told me. "Someone stood in front of my door. He had read our call and asked me, 'Is this something for your committee?' "

The person explained that his father-in-law had found it while digging in his garden with a shovel. The medal had a frayed ribbon attached. The father-in-law tossed it in a box, and it wasn't until years later after his death that the medal was noticed and cleaned up.

The front of the medal says, "Wisconsin Skating Association, 1924, Arena Ice Gardens, Milwaukee." And on the back: "Silver Skates Indoor Derby, 2-6-24, 2nd, Jr., 1 mile, Herbert C. Burr, Time 3:16."

Van den Boom found the association's website and sent an email to a contact name he found there, Amy Decker. He explained how the medal was found, and he asked if Burr had been a member of the association, if he was indeed involved in the liberation, if he survived the war, if he has living relatives, and if a photo of him is available.

Census records indicate Burr married a woman named Myra and had two daughters, Barbara in about 1932 and Sandra in about 1937. Old city directories show the family living in the 5900 block of W. Roosevelt Drive in Milwaukee from the 1940s until at least the 1970s. Herbert Burr worked at Gugler Lithographic Co.

I was able to reach Burr's daughter, Barbara Neubauer, who was listed as a representative in her mother's probate court file. She lives in Milwaukee.

"Oh, my gosh, you've got to be kidding," she said when I called to tell her about the medal.

Her father never served in the military and, in fact, never set foot in the Netherlands. But Barbara and her husband lived there in Veldhoven from 1981 to 1983 because of his job.

Barbara knows exactly how her father's medal wound up in the garden. Her home there was burglarized in 1982 while she was away for the weekend. The medal was in a drawer that was ransacked and it was stolen along with her mostly costume jewelry.

The crooks, apparently disappointed they didn't get a better haul, discarded the items along a path near Barbara's house and apparently also in someone's garden.

It's been a long strange trip for this medal, but it will soon be on its way back to Milwaukee to the family of Herbert C. Burr.

To read the complete article, see:
1924 Milwaukee speedskating medal center of overseas mystery (www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/1924-milwaukee-speedskating-medal-center-of-overseas-mystery-b99359918z1-277329701.html)

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