Jim Burns. (Courtesy photo)
James A. Burns died peacefully in his sleep on July 21, 2026, having been caught in the web of Alzheimer’s disease.
Born James Aloysius Burns in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, his early years were spent in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, and his high school years in Danville, Pennsylvania, where he worked at the ice cream counter at the family pharmacy. As a child, Jim spent time on “The Hill“ in Plains, Pennsylvania. Jim wondered at the sight of steam engines working the coal mine and rail yard. His grandfather ran the colliery. That vision prompted him to question the force of energy and ultimately found him at Carnegie Mellon as a student of physics.
Jim met Barbara Sullivan as a young man and after marriage, they moved to Wappinger Falls, New York. They began a family and Geoff, Sean, and Cath arrived. After a move to IBM in Burlington, Vermont, the last child, Jim, was born. Jim received a doctorate in physics from UVM, while keeping up with the growing family and traveling back to Pennsylvania on holidays to visit family.
A move to Harvard began a new chapter. Jim briefly worked at Honeywell but settled at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He was involved in pioneer work with silicon wafer chip design and prototype application. This was an intense period, stewarding growing children through their teenage years as best he could. Jim was involved and supported his children’s interests, from running, hiking, art, motor sports, and even an occasional rock concert.
The ’70s fascination with jogging led Jim to join Apple Runners in Harvard for twice-weekly running groups. There he met the new chapter in his life, Cindy Greeley. They moved from Willard Lane in Harvard to West Concord. Their relationship and later marriage brought joy and a growing family unit. All forms of travel were on the table, even with Jim still at the Lab. They “bagged peaks” and went on multiple-day rail trail bicycle trips. Traveling out west and abroad also featured high in their adventures. Jim enjoyed the preparation and researching of these trips. However, his homeland, the woods, streams, ridges, and gorges of central Pennsylvania were always in his soul.
Grassy Hollow, backed into the hills of Jamison City, Pennsylvania, was the epicenter around which his love of the outdoors and nature began. His life branched out in many directions but he always knew his true beginnings, the coal hills, ash hills, and onion-domed churches nestled in the valleys of Pennsylvania. On July 21, 2026, Jim backed his locomotive into the round house and dumped the ash pan. He fell asleep and set sail to the coal regions of his childhood dreams.
He is survived by his wife, Cindy McLean-Greeley; his children: Geoffrey Burns and his wife Carina Burns of Palo Alto, California; Sean Burns and his wife Lori Phaneuf-Burns of Chesterfield; Catherine Burns and her husband Ernie Buford of Richmond, Vermont; and Jim Burns and his wife Chris Burns of Harvard; his stepchildren, Hollis McElwain of West Concord, and Helen McElwain of Los Angeles, California, and his many grandchildren.