BURKE, EDMUND STEVENSON JR. (February 1, 1879-April 7, 1962) wealthy banker and sportsman, was born in Cleveland, the son of Edmund S. and Julia Fritz Burke. He graduated from UNIVERSITY SCHOOL in 1896 and attended Princeton University for four years, where he played baseball and football. Burke studied law for a short time before joining the Corrigan McKinney Steel Company where his grandfather, STEVENSON BURKE, was a major stockholder. When the Union Trust closed in 1933, Burke was a member of the group that sought to resurrect the company. He served as a director of the FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF CLEVELAND from 1933-1938 (from 1934-1936, he was acting chairman of the Board of Directors for the bank). Burke was a member of the United States Securities Exchange Commission from 1941-1943.
A skilled yachtsman, Burke was best known for the 140-foot long yacht "Josephine," built in 1926 at a cost of $500,000. He also raised horses on his estate, and his trotters and pacers won the local harness racing challenge cup in 1907, 1908, and 1909. Burke, along with Corliss Sullivan, introduced the game of POLO to Cleveland in 1911, providing a polo field on his estate, assembling a team for the matches, and importing expert Earl Hopping to teach the game. In 1938 he sold his forty-two room townhouse to the CLEVELAND MUSIC SCHOOL SETTLEMENT.
Burke married Josephine Brainard Chisholm on October 22, 1904, and they had four children, Stevenson Burke, Mrs. Josephine Gillespie, Mrs. Parthenia de Muralt of New York, and Mrs. Kathleen Sherwin of Cleveland. He died at his home in CLEVELAND HEIGHTS and was buried at LAKE VIEW CEMETERY.