Columbus surgeon Max Burr remembered for impact on patients, friends, family

Max Burr, a retired Columbus orthopedic surgeon, was remembered Monday by friends and colleagues as a talented physician; kind and gentle man, devoted to his family and church; and a lover of the arts.

Burr, 76, died Sunday morning at his summer home on Michigan’s Walloon Lake.

Columbus physician Tom Wade became close friends with Burr through St. Thomas Episcopal Church. Through years of friendship and traveling together, he saw what he called Burr’s gift.

“He was quietly respectful,” Wade said. “But he made an impact on all the people he came in contact with. He had the ability to nurture relationships. And he had those relationships with so many people that we never knew about because he did not tell you the things he did.”

He is survived by his wife of nearly 52 years, Ann, and their two children, Marla and Jason. They have six grandchildren.

A native of Newton Falls, Ohio, Burr graduated from Hiram (Ohio) College before attending medical school at Temple University, where he received his degree in 1965.

He served three years in the U.S. Coast Guard after graduating medical school. In 1968, he did a residency in orthopedic surgery with the U.S. Public Heath Service in San Francisco. That led to stops in Anchorage, Alaska, New Orleans and Columbus.

As Hughston Clinic was expanding, many physicians would rotate through the practice for the opportunity of working with Dr. Jack Hughston, the founder and one of the most prominent orthopedic surgeons in the nation, said Columbus surgeon Leland McCluskey.

“Back in those days, Dr. Hughston would pick out the ones he thought had talent and invite them back into the practice,” McCluskey said.

Burr got the invitation, joining the Hughston Clinic staff in 1971 as a general orthopedic surgeon.

“He took a leap of faith coming to Columbus in the 1970s,” said his daughter, Marla Caligaris. “This was a very closed community at that time. But Dr. Hughston and Columbus embraced him though he was a true outsider. They embraced our whole family.”

Unlike many of the doctors at Hughston Clinic who focused on sports-related injuries, Burr went in a different direction.

“He developed an interest in the spine and the last part of his career he mostly worked on the spine,” McCluskey said.

Burr brought a talent and skill and a little different take, she said.

“Some doctors practice the science of medicine,” McCluskey said. “Max was really good at the art of medicine. And that always made sense to me because the arts were so important in the rest of his life. I know that he played the piano and he was in the choir at St. Thomas.”

Many of his patients became friends, Wade said.

“As a surgeon, he didn’t just see a problem, get it out and go on,” Wade said, “he was able to have longstanding relationships with many of his patients.”

In 2004, Burr developed an eye condition that forced him to leave the medical practice. The way Burr moved forward with an early retirement that was forced because he could no longer do surgeries, impressed his longtime Hughston Clinic colleague Kurt Jacobson.

“That was a big hit,” Jacobson said. “All of a sudden, something that he had done all of his life, he could no longer do. Some people get bitter in that situation. Max took it in the opposite direction. He took it as an opportunity to get more involved with the arts and cultivated that side of his life.”

Burr was never afraid to try something different, his daughter said.

“He helped convince Dr. Hughston to leave the office space over there by the Red Lobster and move to some land out in the country that the Adams family was selling,” Caligaris said of the current office on north Veterans Parkway. “My parents were the first to buy a condo in the Eagle & Phenix Mill downtown. They put their home on Hilton Avenue for sale and moved downtown before a lot of people were moving downtown.”

The Burrs joined St. Thomas Episcopal Church in 1971 when he went to work at Hughston Clinic and moved to Columbus. For 46 years, Burr was faithful to the church, serving in many lay leadership positions including senior warden. He also sang in the choir.

“He was a faithful man, a good caretaker of people and the world,” said St. Thomas Rector Grace Burton-Edwards. “He loved plants and creation.”

In addition to being a trained pianist, Burr was a patron and collector of art. He served on the Board of Directors of the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts.

His “happy place” was the Michigan summer home he purchased in the mid-1980s, said friend Sherry Wade.

“I know he said a hundred times that he wanted some of his ashes spread on Wallon Lake,” she said. “He really loved it up there. I know that he had recently planted his garden.”

Burton-Edwards agreed.

“I know that he loved that place,” Burton said. “It’s a beautiful ending, in that sense.”

This story was originally published June 12, 2017 at 6:08 PM with the headline "Columbus surgeon Max Burr remembered for impact on patients, friends, family."