He enlisted in the United States Army in October 1917 and was discharged in July 1919 as a corporal with Company B, 15th Machine Gun Battalion.

He was an assistant state attorney general of New York from 1931 to 1934, and was corporate counsel for the City of Rochester from 1934 to 1937.

He served as Chief Judge from 1955 to 1967, and assumed senior status on June 15, 1981, the 44th anniversary of his Senate confirmation to the bench.

One of Roosevelt's longest-serving appointees and the last federal judge in active service in the position FDR appointed him to,[a] Burke died on July 17, 1981, in Rochester, just over a month after stepping down.

[3] He is buried at Saint Anne's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Palmyra, New York.