Louise Kevin Burke, 85

Annapolis, Md.

Louise Kevin Burke, 85, of Annapolis, Md., passed away on June 16 in Danvers, Mass. Born in Swampscott, Mass., Louise was the daughter of the late Edward and Marguerite Kevin. Louise attended Swampscott schools and graduated from Swampscott High School in 1952.

She worked as a computer programmer at General Electric in Lynn, Mass. In 1962 she married Les Burke, and shortly afterwards they bought a sailboat and enjoyed sailing and scuba diving together. In 1970 they decided to take the big leap and sold everything to move aboard the 52’ custom sloop Avatar as professional skippers.

They sailed south to the Caribbean where they chartered the yacht for George Baker, its New York owner. But tragedy struck in April of 1972 when Les suffered a heart attack aboard Avatar and died a month later. Widowed at 37, that fall Louise decided that the beach was no place for her and she returned to Avatar and the Bakers and sailed away the hurt, logging over 15,000 miles astern.

In 1976, Louise was introduced to Alexander Graham Bell Grosvenor, descendant of the telephone inventor, who helped establish the U.S. Naval Academy’s sailing program by soliciting donations of large racing sailboats for the fleet. Grosvenor invited Louise to join the Naval Academy as its first female sailing instructor.

At the time of her hiring, the Academy received the donation of the 82-foot Herreshoff schooner Mistral. The yacht was slated to be the U.S. Navy’s representative celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s 1977 Silver Jubilee in the Humble River Review. In mid-May, Louise, along with 12 midshipmen, a retired army general, and two ensigns set out for England and arrived, after a succession of wet cold gales, 48 hours before the review.

Mistral then set out for a circular navigation of the Atlantic Ocean logging 9,300 nautical miles in 66 days. Louise averaged 8,000 miles a year of mostly heavy duty offshore sailing aboard Mistral while teaching safety at sea, piloting, celestial navigation, and even weather broadcasting for NOAA.

Louise eventually rose to the position of director of the Naval Academy’s offshore racing program, which grew to a fleet of 12 donated boats from 40 to 68 feet and 12 J/24s. The 190 midshipmen involved in the program made it, at the time, the largest sailing team in the world. After 14 years with the Naval Academy she retired but stayed involved as a Trustee of U.S. Navy Sailing, and helped with the Vets on the Bay program.

Louise traveled extensively, and her passion for sailing and scuba diving never faltered.

As a trailblazer for women in professional yachting she was recently nominated for induction into the National Sailing Hall of Fame. Louise was a founding member of the Eastport Yacht Club in Annapolis, a member of the Explorers Club in Washington D.C., where she also served on the board, and was one of the originators of US Sailing’s Safety at Sea program. She was also the first woman to be invited to join the prestigious Storm Trysail Club.