RAND BURNETTE

August 10, 1936 – March 3, 2020

Longtime WMS member Rand Burnette died on March 3, 2020, in Jacksonville, Illinois, at age 83.  In the Winter 2008 issue (#73) of The Portolan, he provided the following member spotlight:

RAND BURNETTE:  Cartographic Interests:  the history of cartography and especially the career of Thomas Hutchins (1730-1789).  Academic Background:  A.B., Wabash College; M.S., University of Wisconsin, Madison; and Ph.D. Indiana University all in history.  I am trained as an early American historian, but taught history courses covering a broad range of subjects for forty years at Carthage College and MacMurray College, where I am a Professor Emeritus.  I am a life member of AHA, OAH, and SHD and I belong to WMS (ten years), Chicago Map Society, Hakluyt Society and IMCoS.  I have collected books and materials on the history of cartography and Thomas Hutchins over the past 25 years.  I did a term paper on the history of cartography my senior year in high school, but I never had a geography course.  Then I attended David Woodward’s NEH Summer Institute on the History of Cartography at the Newberry Library in 1980.  Ten years later I taught my first course in the History of Cartography and continued to teach it until I retired in 2002.

Rand continued to pursue his academic interests after retirement, reading academic publications (especially in cartography), and publishing numerous book reviews in scholarly journals.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/rand-burnette-obituary?pid=195605283