He attended Purdue University and worked as an engineer before becoming involved in New York Democratic politics.
After the death of Thorn Lord in 1965 he was selected as chairman of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee where he played a significant role in planning the 1967 Glassboro Summit Conference between President Lyndon B. Johnson and Soviet Union Premier Alexei Kosygin.
[1] Burkhardt also served as co-director of Citizens for Kennedy in 1960 along with Rep. Frank Thompson of New Jersey.
Burkhardt then became Executive Director of Kennedy's inauguration and was appointed Assistant Postmaster General for Facilities, where he served for six months before returning to New Jersey to manage the gubernatorial campaign of Richard Hughes.
His political career came to an end in 1972 when he pleaded guilty in Federal Court to a charge of accepting $30,000 in bribes to 'fix' a bridge construction contract in 1964, when he was serving as Secretary of State to Governor Hughes.