Great story here. I've heard of him before in previous articles.
Click on the link for photos and a video of his walk to work.
From the Austin American-Statesman
http://www.statesman.com/news/conten.../0719burd.html
A Burd's eye view of Austin
76-year-old Gene Burd walks from UT to South Austin every day and observes how the city changes
By Patrick George
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, July 19, 2007
It's a 3 1/2-mile walk between Gene Burd's apartment near Barton Springs Road and his office on the University of Texas campus, a walk that he makes twice a day. He's easy to spot on downtown streets, namely because Burd hoofs his daily commute at a brisk pace that belies his 76 years.
A compactly built man with thinning white hair, Burd has walked the same route — with only slight variations — since he started teaching journalism at UT in 1972. He eschews cars, believing they have a negative effect on the urban environment. He walks to the doctor, to the grocery store and to work. He never uses elevators because "you meet a better class of people" on staircases, he says.
A reporter since 1953 and teacher since 1959, Burd has a gentle, high-pitched voice and often holds his hand over his mouth when he talks, as if telling a secret. His office is so full of papers and books stacked to the ceiling that it's nearly impossible to step inside.
He's also famously frugal — so much so that in 2004, he used more than $1 million of his own money, most of it just from saving up his paychecks and investments, to establish the Urban Communication Foundation, which gives financial awards to journalists and researchers who specialize in city planning, architecture, zoning, environmental issues and other urban topics. He has since given the foundation $25,000 for operational costs.
This from a man known as one of the lowest-paid tenured professors in his department.
While Burd expects that many people think of him as "that crazy old fart who walks everywhere," his daily walk gives him a chance to observe his city as it grows and changes.
Gene Burd is a man who loves cities. It's why he created his foundation. It's a curious passion, considering Burd was born in a cabin in rural Missouri and was educated in a one-room schoolhouse in the Ozarks.
He worked as a newspaper reporter in several cities before earning a doctorate in urban media studies from Northwestern University in Chicago and joining the UT faculty.
"Gene was an early pioneer into urban journalism and the problems that caused Detroit and L.A. to burn in the 1960s," said Rusty Todd, a professor and former chairman of the UT journalism school.
Though he now has the longest tenure in the journalism school, Burd is still an associate professor and his $73,779 annual salary ranks beneath many younger peers. While he says that he's "a little bitter" about that, he has nonetheless made a lasting impression on many of his students.
"He's a wonderful professor who really understands journalism and its course over time," said Megan Larson, a recent graduate and former student of Burd's.
"One thing he told us was that if you want to be a good writer, you have to know a little bit about everything," said Dennis Killian, another former student.
Walking tours daily
Every day at 6 p.m., Burd — often decked out in a tan bucket hat and old gray New Balance running shoes and toting a blue canvas briefcase — leaves his office and starts heading south. He takes the bus only when lightning threatens.
He makes his way down Guadalupe, checking the newspaper headlines as he passes and making sure to catch a blast of cool air from the Union Underground beneath the streets. Passing the giant oak trees near the Harry Ransom Center, Burd effortlessly bounds across a concrete block near the Shell station on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard before heading down Lavaca Street. It's a straight shot downtown after this.
Along the way, he likes to remember. He remembers how Cambridge Towers on Lavaca were controversial when they were built in the 1970s because they were taller than the Capitol. He remembers how the Schlotzsky's on Guadalupe used to be the Night Hawk restaurant where he ate his first meal in Austin. He remembers how there used to be more bookstores, cafés and hangouts along the Drag.
"Compared to what it used to be, the Drag has really become, well, a drag," Burd says.
By the time he's reached the Governor's Mansion, Burd is half an hour into his commute. Seven blocks south, he checks the newspaper stand outside the Halcyon coffee shop for old copies of The New York Times. He likes to point out how few of the cars that zoom past him have more than one passenger inside. He observes how downtown has changed with the construction of the posh Second Street shopping district and the new City Hall.
"It's like a bad marriage: It's ugly, but you get used to it," Burd says of the municipal building.
His walk doesn't always go as he plans. He has to contend with traffic nearly running him over and bad weather, and he once was beaten and robbed about 10 years ago.
He stops to pick up every piece of loose change he finds on the ground.
"Usually pays my phone bill," Burd says as he places a shiny penny into his breast pocket.
A penny saved
It's Burd's frugality that has allowed him to save up and give to causes he cares about. He lives unassumingly in a modest, low-rent South Austin apartment where he's lived since 1999.
He seldom buys new clothes. Those New Balance shoes? He found them in the trash somewhere. He rarely goes out to eat and doesn't have a car. Never married, he says growing up in rural poverty taught him to be a good saver. He says he invests conservatively and wisely, and has used stockbrokers for many years.
In addition to his creation of the Urban Communication Foundation, Burd donated $500,000 to the Junior Statesman of America, which teaches young students about government and democracy. He also set up an annual prize given by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in honor of Lori Eason, one of his graduate students who died in 2002.
While Burd wouldn't divulge his exact financial status, he said he is "not at all broke" even after his donations. Much of it comes from cashing in retirement funds he doesn't think he'll use — as long as he's physically and mentally healthy, he doesn't plan on retiring, or ending his twice-daily trek across town.
"Each year, it gets a little more difficult for me," Burd says. "But I just keep on going."
Meanwhile, all this giving has brought him more attention than he bargained for, he said.
"Now the development people, the fundraisers at the college want in," Burd says with a laugh. "I haven't figured out what to do about that yet."
While the $1 million donation might have come as a total shock to some, those who know Burd well say they suspected he might have had something like this up his sleeve all along.
"I once said to him, 'Burd, I'll bet you've got a million bucks stashed away somewhere,' " said Bob Mann, a lecturer at the journalism school. "He would never spend it on himself. He's extremely generous."
"I guess I'm a miser, but I try to share with others," Burd says. "I never went into journalism or teaching to make money."
How to save a million dollars
Money-management tips from UT professor Gene Burd:
• Don't have kids or a car. Kids cost a lot of money, and college alone will put you thousands of dollars in the hole. Cars are expensive when you figure in gas, maintenance, insurance, etc.
• Never buy on credit. "You don't own it until you can afford it," Burd says.
• "Wear it until you wear it out." Burd rarely buys new clothes and personal items, and when he does, he uses them until he can't anymore. In other words, don't be wasteful.
• Shop around for good bargains, and don't be afraid to buy secondhand items.
• Make conservative investments. "If you buy stock, buy it for the long haul," Burd says.
• It's better to give than receive. "It's been a blessing for me to give all this money away," Burd says.
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