Most Little League baseball fields in the older parts of towns do not look as beauti­fully manicured as Sheldon Park in East Muskegon. Of course, most fields do not have an individual like Ralph Burr to work on like a second front lawn. Burr has often single-handedly maintained his own “field of dreams” for no pay since 1958.
In 1999, Sheldon Park hosted the little League baseball state tournament a true feather in Burr’s cap. Burr has also served his hometown as the unpaid offi­cial scorekeeper of Muskegon profession­al hockey games for the past 26 years and a minimally-paid official and coach for high school and youth games for the past 49 years.
Burr, a 1954 Muskegon High School graduate, worked as a supervisor at Brunswick Corp. for 35 years. When he was not working, he was serving others. Many Muskegonites still remember him as ‘Coach Burr,’ as he did quite a bit of youth football and baseball coaching in the 1960s. Ralph and Kathy Burr have seven children, 11 grandchildren and one great grandchild.