Monique's Legacy

In Northern California, autumn days can be breathtakingly beautiful; clear and bright, with warm breezes floating over the hills and the perfume of crushed grapes filling the air.

Ed and Monique Burr were enjoying just such a day, driving through the Napa Valley countryside and savoring the sunshine.

The Jacksonville couple-college sweethearts who met when she was a freshman and he was a senior at Florida State University-were celebrating his 40th birthday and their 10th wedding anniversary with a second honeymoon.

Certainly, the Burrs seemed to have it all. He was the highly respected founder of a company that built amenity-rich, master-planned developments. She was a beautiful, high-profile community volunteer and a tireless advocate for children. Together, they had two young boys.

Then, in an instant, everything changed.

Without warning, a trucker lost control of his vehicle, crashing into the Burrs' car and killing Monique instantly. Ed survived, and was left to raise his sons alone.

That was in 1996. Today, Ed Burr's company, LandMar Group LLC, is a $112 million development industry powerhouse. The boys, Austin, 13, and Garrison, 10, are healthy, happy youngsters who play sports and look forward to ski-country vacations with their dad.

And Monique's name is still synonymous with helping youngsters in need. On the first anniversary of her death, Ed started the Monique Burr Foundation for Children to benefit abused, neglected and disadvantaged children.

Burr, a quiet man with strong features and sandy hair turning gray, talks about his late wife, and about the Foundation, with the straightforward calm of someone who has had to recall a painful past many times.

"When Monique was killed, she was on the board of the Children's Crisis Center," Burr says. "She was working to broaden the reach of that organization. She founded the first PALS (Police Athletic League) center to provide extended care for medically dependent children."

The Monique Burr Foundation, he adds, reflects his wife's commitment to preventing child abuse and neglect through education and intervention. The Foundation, which primarily raises funds and awards grants, works in close partnership with the Children's Crisis Center and other area not-for-profits.

"Ed has taken a tragic personal loss and turned it into a vehicle for providing hope and help for so many abused children and families in need of guidance and assistance," says Barbara Florio, the Foundation's executive director. "His example of strong leadership, altruism and human compassion permeates from his personal life to his business dealings."

Over the past five years, the Foundation has raised more than $1 million to support endeavors such as Monique's Kids, a program that provides educational and recreational opportunities to underprivileged children. Monique's Kids is administered through Fresh Ministries, an outreach of the Episcopal Diocese of Florida.

In addition, the Foundation funds the Children's Crisis Center's two signature programs-the Monique Burr Safety Net for Kids and Good Touch/Bad Touch.

The Safety Net program offers support for children who are returning to their families after a stay in the Crisis Center. Social workers paid through the Foundation stay in touch with families and make unannounced visits in an effort to identify risk factors that could lead to new incidents of abuse. Good Touch/Bad Touch is a sexual abuse education program.

The Foundation also funds a range of other activities and programs, including scholarships to preschool for inner -city children. Bolstering its coffers are golf tournaments, holiday galas, fashion shows and other events as well as donations from private individuals and organizations.

Burr's friends and colleagues say that the Foundation is his passion.

"Ed is more than generous with his time and with the gifts that God has given him," says the Rev. Davette Turk, director of the Department of Reconciliation at Fresh Ministries and a long-time friend. "He is a man of outstanding integrity and character. He's very deliberate and very intelligent; he knows what he's doing each step of the way. But he's also a very compassionate man."

Turk has known the Burr family for 16 years. She and Ed met on a plane as he was flying home to be with Monique, who had just suffered a miscarriage. The priest offered to pray with the distraught stranger beside her, and the two asked God to help Ed find the right words to comfort his wife.

Turk didn't see Burr again for three years. When their paths finally did cross, it was at a Jacksonville Jaguars game where she was giving the invocation. Insurance executive Tom Petway, who had heard the story of the fateful midair meeting, pointed Burr out. "He said, 'There's the guy you prayed with on the plane,'" recalls Turk.

"Ed walked up with Monique, who was all blond hair and blue eyes and very pregnant," Turk continues. "I was thrilled for them-and then they told me that this child was their second. Austin had been born since I last saw Ed."

Less than three years later, Turk got a call saying that Monique had died, and that Ed wanted her to conduct the funeral and to help him counsel the boys. Although Turk felt as though she had lost a family member of her own, she never doubted that Burr would have the courage to pull through.

"He really, really loved Monique and I don't think he's gotten over her death," Turk says. "That's a beautiful thing in this day and age. But his focus, with all his heart, is on two things: his boys and his work."

Burr, a Jacksonville native and an accountant by training, founded LandMar in 1987. In 1999 LandMar joined forces with Crescent Resources LLCV, a land management and real estate development subsidiary of Duke Energy.

Today the company's developments-North Hampton, South Hampton, Hampton Park, Osprey Cove and The Watermark-dot the First Coast. LandMar communities are distinguished by resort-style amenity packages, including signature golf courses by legendary designers such as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Mark McCumber and Pete Dye.

Roger Postlethwaite, LandMar's chief operating officer, credits Burr's vision for the company's success. Burr, he says, was among the first to recognize the wisdom of providing country club amenities in developments not built around country clubs. He also credits Burr with understanding, before many other developers did, the importance of protecting the environment and creating a sense of community in his projects.

"He is the heart and soul of LandMar, and certainly one of the most intelligent people I know," says Postlethwaite. "But he also has tremendous heart. He really cares about the people who work for him. He realizes that family is the most important thing."

Burr's philanthropy reflects his philosophy. In addition to his support of the Children's Crisis Center and Fresh Ministries, he is also active in Christian Healing Ministries and the Police Athletic League. Through LandMar, he is a major force behind Building for Life, a joint venture with several not-for-profit agencies seeking to revitalize the East Jacksonville neighborhood around Alltel Stadium.

In February, Burr was honored by Hearthstone, a financial services company, and Builder magazine with a Hearthstone-Builder National Lifetime Public Service Award. The awards are presented annually to builders and developers who have demonstrated long-term commitments to charitable endeavors. In 2002, Burr was named the Northeast Florida Builders Association's Builder/Developer of the Year.

Still, Burr says his most important job "is to raise two healthy, happy children." To that end, he has taken time from work to coach the boys' sports teams and to take them fishing. They spend the Christmas holidays in Colorado-a tradition begun after Monique's death-where the family goes sledding and snowboarding.

Burr notes that while Austin and Garrison are involved in Foundation activities, the organization and its mission will likely mean more to them as they get older. "They were very young when Monique died," he says. "This is a way for them to know something about her."

Sometimes, Burr admits, carrying on Monique's crusade can be heartrending. He reels off one particularly chilling statistic: One in four girls and one in five boys in the United States will be victims of sexual molestation or physical abuse.

"If your cause is cancer or some other disease, you can imagine that you might someday win the war," he says. "Someone might find a cure. With abuse, you're not going to win the war. As long as there are people, there will be abuse."

Still, Burr notes, it's vital to carry on despite the odds.

"You have to measure your success based on how many children you did help," he says. "If you change the life of a child, then you change the lives of generations to come. That's important work."

For more information about the Monique Burr Foundation for Children, call (904) 642-0210 or log on to the organization's Web site at www.moniqueburrfoundation.org.