Services Friday for Burnley

Frontiersman staff

MAT-SU — The community is invited to attend a celebration of life at 11 a.m., Friday, at Teeland Middle School for Mat-Su Borough School District Superintendent Kenneth S. Burnley, who died unexpectedly Saturday morning after complications from knee replacement surgery.

Burnley was hired July 1, 2010, after serving as the Senior Resident Fellow at the University of Michigan, where he helped develop an intervention model for struggling middle school students. He had held the superintendent’s position at Detroit Public Schools, Colorado Springs, Colo., and Fairbanks North Star Borough School District over a 24-year period.

School Board President Michael Dunleavy said his wife had the same surgery a month ago — same doctor, same hospital, same room.

“We don’t know all the facts yet,” Dunleavy said. “We’re all just trying to take it in and support the family the best we can. It’s going to be a loss not just for the state, but for the nation. He made huge impacts in Detroit, Colorado Springs, Fairbanks and here. I’ve been in education for 28 years as a principal, a teacher and as a superintendent, and I probably learned more from him this past year than I probably learned in all those years combined.”

Public viewing and visitation with the Burnley family is from 4 to 8 p.m., Thursday at Valley Funeral Home, 151 East Herning, Wasilla.

In lieu of flowers, a scholarship fund has been established at his alma mater, the University of Michigan. Contributions to the Kenneth Stephen Burnley Memorial Fund may be made at any Wells Fargo bank.