When first rounding with his John Hopkins/Medical College of Wisconsin attending, fellows may be initially baffled by his down to earth nature, and then subsequently humbled by quiet genius. This hematopoietic stem cell transplant physician who was a laboratory chief, an immunologist, a virologist, a computer programmer, an astronomer, an art historian, and an opera lover who once said ‘Life is a poor imitation of opera.’ His home was an observatory with a telescope of hand-ground mirrors and a library of books, manuscripts, and opera. Walk through any art museum and Professor Burns captivated his company with stories of every painter and painting. In a metropolitan museum are found the El Greco's that hung in his aunt's home and are now on display for the public. A lover of laboratory research who would serve wine and Opera on Friday lab nights. A physician who rather than subjecting applicants to another dry interview, invited them to dinner or an evening at the Metropolitan Opera.
The depth of this gentle man can even be seen on the other side of this world in Nanjing, China, in a section of the original University hospital. There over the fireplace hangs a picture of Sun Yat-sen, the founder of modern China, more revered than any modern Chinese political figure. Next to Sun Yat-sen, himself a physician, stood a picture of William Burn's uncle, also named Bill and the cofounder of Nanjing's first hospital. So there in Nanjing far from the mentor who trained many cellular transplant physicians is memorialized yet another of numerous contributions by his family.
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