Eulogy by Andy Dean
Dean of Students, The College Preparatory School
Oakland, California

I'm Andy Dean, Dean of Students at College Prep School in Oakland, the school that Julia attended.

I am speaking to you today on behalf of the school, the faculty, the students and me. I've spoken to perhaps thirty or forty students and twenty or thirty faculty in the last day or so, asking them about Julia, asking them for memories and stories. It was pretty easy to get responses; so many people had a lot to say. Good memories of Julia. I'm speaking as an only child speaking to the parents of an only child in their and our time of grieving. Marilyn and Jerry are parents that I've watched during this tragic time, and whom I admire enormously.

As Dean of Students, I get to know students in a number of rather different ways, some good, some not so good. Julia first appeared on my radar screen at a Parent's Association event for new parents. I conducted a quick survey to find out how long freshmen students were talking on the phone each night. Julia got the record. FOUR HOURS a night!!! That's when I started to realize just how involved Julia was with other kids. Now I know that she was maintaining contact, not just with CPS'ers but also with crew kids and with debaters nationwide.

CPS was known at "Debate Schools" across the country as the school that Julia Burke went to.

Julia was a central person to many others. She touched people all around her.

She had quite an impact on CPS. The level of discussion was higher when she was in a class. Even when she was surreptitiously passing notes around in class, she would suddenly speak up with a very articulate and clear argument. She didn't hesitate to make her point and defend it fiercely. In particular she never hesitated on ethical issues. Her strong feeling about organ donation is just one example of this.

Paul Moos, her science teacher, told me a little story that I'd like to share. Julia started out in Science II, one year ahead of schedule and as it happened, Julia was in Paul's Chemistry Lab section. She didn't really want to do the lab reports but reluctantly did them. She was in Paul's class again as a sophomore and by now had accepted doing the lab reports. However, she took to adding occasional comments such as "Elvis sighting at bottom of test tube" or "Pink bunny sighting occurred." She hid these comments in the report text to see if Paul was reading her work. Paul told me that he decided to show Julia that he really was reading her reports, so he slipped a pink Marshmallow Bunny in her lab beaker when she wasn't looking! That's his sense of humor and Julia's too!

Her humor was infectious. She was funny and fun to be with. Going out to coffee was an adventure if Julia was going along too.

She was of course committed to debate. One day she went over to Elliot Tarloff's house and while waiting for Elliot she got into conversation with someone else waiting at the house. She explained that Elliot was in debate and that they were preparing for a debate about the Asian financial crisis and the ridiculous policies of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. It was then that the man decided to introduce himself. Alan Greenspan! She held her own! That's Julia.

I have a lot more anecdotes that I could cite but I would like to end with something that Jeff Henderson put together yesterday. It's a sequence from a Calvin & Hobbes collage but what I'd like to read is the ending paragraph that Jeff wrote. "Sometimes people move on. It's not "supposed" to happen, nor does anyone want it to. Sometimes though, it just happens. Julia left our midst suddenly, almost as suddenly it seems as she entered our lives. She was a gifted, intelligent, beautiful young woman; her friendships will not soon be forgotten. Her character touched the lives of many and her compassion will save the lives of even more. Julia may have left the physical world but there's a little of her still in all of us. I would like to think that we can treasure even more the friendships and community that we have. Go in peace Julia."

Julia was a perfect match for CPS and CPS was a perfect match for Julia. We will miss her dearly.