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2016 SESSION
WHEREAS, Charles Lee Burwell of Clarke County, an international businessman, distinguished veteran, and preservationist, died on February 26, 2016; and
WHEREAS, a native of Millwood, Charles Burwell earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a master’s degree from Fairfield University; and
WHEREAS, at the outset of World War II, while he was pursuing graduate studies at the University of Paris, Charles Burwell joined the Comité Americain de Secours Civil and drove an ambulance near the Maginot Line; and
WHEREAS, Charles Burwell worked in Shanghai and Haiphong until the Japanese occupation of the region in 1940; he returned home and joined many of the other young men of his generation in service to the nation during World War II as a member of the United States Navy; and
WHEREAS, as a naval intelligence officer, Charles Burwell helped plan the amphibious landing at Normandy, France, on D-Day, as well as landings in southern France and the Philippines and on the island of Okinawa; he retired from military service as a lieutenant commander in the Naval Reserve in 1946; and
WHEREAS, after the war, Charles Burwell served as founding president of Burwell, Allen & Company, Inc., in Shanghai, then cofounded Thaibok Fabrics, Ltd., to import fine silks to the United States; the company’s silks were used in the 1956 film The King and I, which won an Oscar for costume design; and
WHEREAS, in the 1950s, Charles Burwell arranged for the distribution of Thai silks from New York City to showrooms throughout the country; he also worked as a local government official, a police commissioner, and a high school teacher in Connecticut; and
WHEREAS, seeking to preserve the rural charms of his native Clarke County, Charles Burwell formed the Burwell-van Lennep Foundation, a 1,000-acre charitable land trust near the Shenandoah River, and in 1978 he and his wife, Natalie, retired to Clarke County; and
WHEREAS, Charles Burwell made many valuable contributions to the Clarke County community as a cofounder of the Clarke County Library and a board member of the Clarke County Historical Association and Lord Fairfax Community College; he was also a member of the Winchester Torch Club, Shenandoah University Community History Fellows, and the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Shenandoah Valley; and
WHEREAS, predeceased by his beloved wife, Natalie, Charles Burwell will be fondly remembered and greatly missed by his children, Carter and Belinda, and their families, and numerous other family members, friends, and colleagues; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Delegates hereby note with great sadness the loss of Charles Lee Burwell, an entrepreneur, veteran, and preservationist and a pillar of the Clarke County community; and, be it
RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to the family of Charles Lee Burwell as an expression of the House of Delegates’ respect for his memory.