Robert Burger:
CLASS OF 1969
Loyola AcademyClass of 1969
Wilmette, IL
Loyola University - Arts & SciencesClass of 1973
Chicago, IL
St. Gertrude SchoolClass of 1965
Chicago, IL
Robert's Story
Life
I got very interested in politics for quite a while, and was elected Chairman of the Midwest Federation of College Republican Clubs, and later became a national officer. During college, I worked for Governor Ogilvie's administration in various capacities. After college, I went to work for the Illinois State Medical Society, and eventually became Vice President for Health Care Finance. I later became the CEO of the Illinois Association of HMOs. Along the way, I got interested in performing folk music professionally on the weekends, and worked for about 15 years in the Chicago area in bars singing and playing guitar, doing Canadian, Irish and American folk music. It was a schizophrenic lifestyle, as a business executive during the week and a folksinger on the weekends. I met some very interesting people in both worlds!
I got bit hard by the travel bug, and have been to all seven continents and over a hundred and thirty countries. Travel has been my favorite hobby for quite a while.
I was fortunate enough to be married to my wonderful wife Shelley for 13 years, and unfortunate enough to lose her in 2000 to brain cancer. It was truly a 13 year long honeymoon.
I was incredibly fortunate to meet and marry my wife Laura (married now for about 15 years.) She's a nurse by trai...Expand for more
ning and also worked for 10 years on research activities in the development of new drugs. She coordinated clinical drug trials on five different continents. Some time ago she quit her job so we could travel more together. I got a kidney transplant in 2019.
As a travel enthusiast, I knew early on that I wanted out of the work force early, and was fortunate enough to retire at the end of 2000. Laura and I traveled internationally about 4 months a year for many years,, and have spent a great deal of time in Western Europe, South America. north Africa and Asia. . I got a kidney transplant in 2019. Laura and I just started world travel again in January of 2020, going to Oman and The United Arab Emirates. Soon after we returned, the pandemic hit, and now because I am immunocompromised due to the kidney transplant we've been sheltering in place.
I should mention for those of you who correctly remember me as a very committed Republican from my grade school, high school and college days that in 2004 I switched parties and became a Democrat. I didn't leave the Republican Party, it left me. I still have many GOP friends from the old days, but I am not supportive at all of what the Republican Party has become.
Laura and I live in Wilmette, about a ten minute drive from Loyola Academy
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