Cooperative family mourns loss of Charles R. (Dick) Burrell

Dur­ing our years on this earth, we get to meet a lot of peo­ple. Of these peo­ple, you get to know a few well and then there is a hand­ful who have a pow­er­ful impact on your life. Last fall, I, along with our co-op fam­i­ly, lost one of those friends with the pass­ing of Charles R. (Dick) Bur­rell.

Charles “Dick” Richard Bur­rell, Sr. (1936 — 2014)

Bur­rell first joined YEC’s board of direc­tors in 1998. He was elect­ed chair­man in May 2011 and remained in that office until his death. He was a great leader and tru­ly loved YEC and every employ­ee. He time­less­ly looked after our mem­ber­ship whether in the board room, on the phone with a mem­ber or rep­re­sent­ing YEC across the state. Bur­rell also served on The Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tives of South Car­oli­na’s board and was vice-chair­man of the exec­u­tive com­mit­tee. He rep­re­sent­ed us extreme­ly well with a rep­u­ta­tion of integri­ty, self­less­ness, thor­ough­ness and gen­uine car­ing for what was best for every­one. “Dick was one of a small hand­ful of peo­ple whom I have had the priv­i­lege to meet as a child and work with­in my cur­rent role at your statewide,” said Mike Couick, Pres­i­dent and CEO of The Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tives of South Car­oli­na. “His val­ues were time­less, and his lead­er­ship of your coop­er­a­tive reflect­ed those val­ues. Chief among his skills and one he active­ly sought was to just be a good lis­ten­er.”

A heart of service

Bur­rell always had a heart for ser­vice. He served in the Unit­ed States Army and then the Clover Com­mu­ni­ty at Boy­d’s Tire and Appli­ance as the co-own­er and gen­er­al man­ag­er. To me, the great­est area of ser­vice he exem­pli­fied was his love for his fam­i­ly and his God. He was an elder at the Clover ARP Church where he vis­it­ed fam­i­lies faith­ful­ly no mat­ter how far or how often he had to dri­ve his white Chevy pick­up truck. Most pro­found­ly, Bur­rell inspired me to be a god­ly father and hus­band. We would talk often about his love for his fam­i­ly and how proud he was of his four chil­dren and 10 grand­chil­dren. His wife, Jane Bar­rett Bur­rell, after 57 years of mar­riage, was still the love of his life. He adored his wife and expressed how he enjoyed sit­ting in the swing out back with her where they would “just talk.” It was obvi­ous by his actions that he loved her more than life itself. Bur­rell would often encour­age me to make sure I had a good bal­ance between my work and fam­i­ly life. By doing so, I knew how much he cared for me, and I’ll always trea­sure his friend­ship.

Bur­rell was a gen­tle­man in every regard, respect­ed and loved by all of us here at YEC. Dick Bur­rell will be missed by many, none more than his fam­i­ly, but I think I will come in a close sec­ond.

 

Paul Basha

Paul Basha
Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer