Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry Ed Burris

Ed Burris has been advocating on the part of Warren County veterans for the last 18 years.

Burris was first appointed by the Warren County commissioners to be the county’s director of veterans affairs in September of 2002.

On July 4, he will retire.

During those almost 18 years, Burris efforts have helped bring millions of dollars of benefits to veterans in the county.

It has been a labor of love.

“I’ve never considered this a job,” he said. “To me, a job is something you really don’t want to do.”

Burris first lived in Warren County since his father retired here from the Navy in 1968.

Like his father, Burris joined the Navy – signing up in 1974.

Burris has been through the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Persian Gulf. “I’ve been to the Arctic Circle,” he said. “I’ve been through the Suez Canal.”

“I was on a destroyer tender, a Landing Ship Dock, and the U.S.S. George Washington,” Burris said. That aircraft carrier is “truly a floating city” of 6,000 inhabitants.

He served at a ship repair facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a shipboard firefighting instructor in Charleston, S.C., and was in charge of the Honor Guard at the largest naval base in the United States – Norfolk.

And, again like his father, Burris retired to Warren County after serving through April 1996.

He found a job and began living his post-military life.

“I was working at a metal fabrication place when my son and daughter-in-law were killed in an automobile accident,” Burris said.

He didn’t work for a year after that.

Then, he heard about a part-time job helping veterans.

He knew then-Commissioner Jim Hunter and asked about the job.

Hunter said the full-time director position was opening up and suggested Burris apply for that.

“I applied,” he said. “Through a series of events and a lot of support from the community, I got the position.”

One of the events, and part of the support, came from his third grade teacher.

“Mrs. Peg Marshall (wife of then-commissioner Jim Marshall) had called the commissioners and told them that if they didn’t hire me they were all stupid.”

The commissioners were not, in her estimation, all stupid on that point.

When Burris first started, the director’s office was in a trailer in the courthouse parking lot.

Successive boards of commissioners have kept him on.

“I’ve been very fortunate dealing with the commissioners,” he said. “Ever since I was hired, boards of commissioners, up to and including this board, have been very supportive.”

He is now in a corner office on the first floor inside the courthouse that he shares with Assistant Director Delores Stec.

Every county in the commonwealth must have a director. Some have part-time directors. Some have a director and numerous assistants.

Warren County does not have a high population, nor a particularly high number of veterans, compared to most counties in Pennsylvania.

However, per capita, it has the most veterans.

The current size is the right size for the office, Burris said. “Warren County really needs a two-person office. The number of claims we write is equivalent to some of the bigger counties.”

“Out of this office, we do in excess of $1 million in new claims a year,” Burris said. The total is around $15 million in Veterans Affairs money for the county’s veterans.

The Warren County director is automatically the president of the Warren County Veterans Council. When he took the reins of that organization, it had a bottom line of $200. That number is much larger now. “We are able to help more people due to the generous donations of people and organizations,” Burris said.

Burris has been effective in representing people here. And that success has been noticed.

“I have been recognized by the state several times for doing the largest per capita compensation claims in the western part of the state,” he said.

Burris is also president of the advisory board for the Pennsylvania Soldiers and Sailors Home and served on the Pennsylvania War Veterans Council.

Over the years, his fellow directors have called for advice. “The military helped me immensely,” Burris said. “A lot of times, people would call me especially about the Navy.”

In time, his expertise was recognized beyond his service. “The other county directors would call me looking for guidance on how to handle a particularly difficult claim,” he said.

In 2010, the county directors elected Burris as their president and he served a two-year term in that office.

The president of the county directors association becomes an honorary member for life.

The president also earns an automatic seat on the State Veterans Commission.

That group advises the state Adjutant General who in turn advises the governor on veterans issues.

He returned to the group as an at-large member appointed by Gov. Tom Wolf in February 2017.

In October of that year, the 18 voting members of the group elected Burris president.

He will remain on the board in the at-large seat until his successor is nominated and qualified.

All of the awards and positions have allowed Burris to better serve veterans in Warren County and statewide.

“It gave me the ability to go to Harrisburg, meet with our representatives and senators, and testify on the needs for different veterans,” he said.

Between the at-large seat on the commission and the lifetime seat on the association, Burris knows he’ll still take some calls on tough questions.

But, it’s time to move on.

“Deciding to retire was a hard decision,” Burris said. “I will miss helping people.”

He wanted to retire before it was too late to enjoy it.

“I’ve seen too many people say, ‘I’m going to work until I can retire very comfortably,’ then they retire and die before they can enjoy the things they wanted to do,” he said. “My wife and I want to do some traveling. I’ve seen a lot of the world, but I haven’t seen a lot of this country.”

He plans to leave Warren County for that, but he plans to hang around in the long run and move into the next part of his life.

“I’m sure I’m going to find another calling.”