Dozens of students, faculty and Aramark employees joined together March 20 for a memorial ceremony in honor of Burt Douglas.
Douglas, who died suddenly at age 55 on Feb. 25, was an Aramark employee at St. Joe’s who lived in West Philadelphia his entire life. Douglas left behind a community of friends, family, coworkers, faculty and students who remember him for his great humor and the relationships he built, both around Philly and at St. Joe’s.
Lester Small still remembers growing up in a close-knit community in West Philadelphia where he met Douglas. He was a little boy, six or seven years younger than Small, who loved to joke and watch cartoons and clung around the older kids in the neighborhood.
Small said some of his best memories with Douglas came from that time, pushing go-karts down his driveway at the corner of 58th Street and Woodcrest Avenue.
“He was the fixture. We expected him to be there,” Small said. “And if he wasn’t there, there was something wrong.”
The March 20 memorial was a balloon-releasing ceremony, during which members of the community could let Douglas’ spirit free as a final goodbye.
Before releasing the balloons, community members shared their memories of Douglas, from the way he joked with students to how easy he was to talk to when he worked in the former coffee shop in Bellarmine Hall.
Lianna Long ’25 and Meadow Monticello ’26 shared a prepared statement to honor Douglas. Long said Douglas knew her by name after the two of them introduced themselves at Moe’s Southwest Grill at The Drop last year.
“Anytime I walked into Campion, he would always be like, ‘Lianna, what’s up?’ And he was always so sweet. Put a smile on my face,” Long said.
Gena Carroll, an Aramark retail supervisor at St. Joe’s, said Douglas got along well with the other Aramark staff, and that he was always good to St. Joe’s students. She remembers Douglas’ laugh and the way students clustered around his register in The Kettle every Sunday when the Eagles played, eager to talk football with the die-hard Birds fans.
“It’s hard walking by that register,” Carroll said. “The first week or so, it was very difficult walking by and not seeing him there. He was like our work brother.”
Dorothy Pollard, Aramark superintendent and cook, said she knew Douglas for over 20 years and remembers him as someone who could always make her laugh or talk about current events.
“He was a beautiful person,” Pollard said. “Oh, gosh, he kept me laughing.”
Douglas’ sudden death was a shock to the entire St. Joe’s community. After not coming into work for several days, friends and family contacted police for a health and wellness check, who subsequently found that Douglas had passed away in his home.
Allen Kerkeslager, Ph.D., associate professor in the department of theology and religious studies, attended the balloon releasing ceremony and spoke about his memories of Douglas.
Kerkeslager considered Douglas one of the closest friends he had on campus for over a decade. He remembers seeing Douglas in the Bellarmine coffee shop and being able to talk to him about politics and social issues with honesty.
“Somebody you can’t replace,” Kerkeslager said of Douglas.
Carroll, who also attended the balloon ceremony, said Douglas’ death caught his Aramark coworkers off guard.
“If heaven had visiting hours, he would be one of the people I would go visit,” Carroll said.
Small didn’t want to go to the funeral at first but attended the viewing after much deliberation.
“I wanted to remember the last time I saw him,” Small said. “I didn’t want that picture of him laying in the casket, and I really didn’t want to go, but I had to pay my respects. It was a real tug-of-war.”
Small said if he could say one more thing to Douglas, it would be that he loved him.
“He was different from a lot of people that you see and meet nowadays, he had his own way about him, and he stuck to it no matter what,” Small said. “We’re really missing something. A guy like him, they don’t come often.”
