Burke was born in Kansas City, Missouri and attended Shawnee Mission High School in 1952.
Naval Reserves from 1963 to 1988 as a carrier-trained aviator, achieving the rank of captain.
[1][4] He married Patricia Ann Pierson in 1955, and was elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in 1972, taking office in 1973.
[2] After one term in the House, Burke was appointed in 1975 to fill the Senate seat of Robert Frederick Bennett, who had been elected Governor.
[1] After his legislative retirement, Burke moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where he died in 2017.