Kathleen Burke, a long-time faculty member at Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, Ohio, died on July 24 at the David Simpson House of Hospice of the Western Reserve in Cleveland. She was 81 years old.
Dr. Burke joined the Ursuline Sisters in 1954 after graduating from the Ursuline Academy of the Sacred Heart. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education at St. John’s College in Cleveland, which closed in 1975. She received a master’s degree in art education from a joint program of Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1972.
Sister Burke then joined the faculty at Ursuline College, where she taught art. After receiving a Ph.D. in art and art therapy from the Union Graduate School in 1985, she was a co-founder of a master’s degree program in counseling and art therapy, which at the time was the only graduate program in the discipline in the state of Ohio.
Dr. Burke retired in 2016 after serving on the college’s faculty for 34 years.