1942-present
Dennis Burdick was born in 1942 in Chicago and raised in the suburb of Bensenville. Originally, Dennis wanted to study chemistry but had become hooked on geology after finding a piece of pyrite at age 8. His school arranged for him to take it to the Field Museum and there was no going back. Burdick went to Birmingham Southern College in Alabama after his school teacher who had visited there recommended it. It was a small college of c. 1,000 students with wonderful resources and equipment and his advisor was a geology professor. While at Birmingham, through organized fieldtrips and his own fieldwork, Dennis took the opportunity to collect fossils from road cuts at Blunt Springs, Bangor, finding rare and complicated crinoids that became the focus of his research. Dennis spent a year at Old Dominion College under a National Science Foundation grant to study marine biology. He had his graduate thesis in crinoids practically written by the time he got to the University of Iowa. Once there though, Professor Brian Glenister made him work hard to rewrite his thesis (although Dennis admits to being a bit of a party animal back then.) Dennis also studied under Professor Bill Furnish. He finished his MS in 1971. He continued to collect crinoids, especially Pella material from Anna, Illinois. At one point, his Mississippian crinoid collection rivaled that of the Field Museum. Dennis went into construction after graduating from the University of Iowa, but still enjoys collecting and studying crinoids among other fossils. He also collaborates with professional paleontologists. Dennis is a great contributor of give-away fossils to the UI Paleontology Repository outreach activity “Millie and Sam’s Fossil Hunt.” (interview with Burdick, 3/27/2010)