WEST BRIDGEWATER - Theodore T. Burba, 88, a resident of West Bridgewater for 75 years, died surrounded by family at Jordan Hospital in Plymouth on Saturday, Jan. 8.
Born in Brockton on Dec. 1, 1916, to the late Titus Burba and the late Stella (Jurewicz) Burba, he was one of four children. The late Lucia Burba, the late Stanley Burba, and the late Sophie (Burba) Connolly were his siblings. He was the husband of Regina M. (Heina) Burba and of the late Stella (Mickevich) Burba. He had four children: Ann M. (Burba) Keeler of Plymouth, Theodore J. Burba of Danville, New Hampshire, the late William E. Burba, and Michael E. Burba of Marlborough. He also leaves seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
Ted spent a happy childhood in Brighton. His parents taught him to speak Lithuanian and sent him to Polish classes on Saturdays. While he was a teenager his family moved to West Bridgewater and started a small farm.
During the Depression, he worked in a CCC camp near the Cape Cod Canal and on Ryan’s Poultry Farm in Stoughton.
Drawing on these experiences he steadily expanded his family’s modest farm to one of the largest poultry businesses in New England in the 1960s.
At its peak , the Burba Poultry Farm produced approximately a quarter million broilers per year, usually with just one or two hired hands other than Ted.
Of course, farming was interrupted by World War II. First he contributed to the war effort by building troop barracks in Virginia and by working as a welder at the General Electric plant in Lynn. Later he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving as a radar operator on small escort vessels on convoy duty in the Caribbean, and on weather patrol in the North Atlantic.
In 1945 he received an Honorable Discharge.
When business conditions forced the farm to close around 1970 he began a second career as a meat inspector, first for the State of Massachusetts and then for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Briefly he came out of retirement from government service to work as a handyman at Westerbeke, Inc. in Avon before finally retiring for good in his early seventies.
When Ted wasn’t working he could usually be found with a book, a tennis racket, or a hammer in his hand.
Due to his agricultural background he was also greatly interested in vegetable gardening, nutrition and cooking.
Always energetic and adventurous, he was making his own yogurt long before it became popular and jogging before it became widespread.
In his later years, he courageously cared for his wife Regina, who was stricken by Alzheimer’s disease, until his own health failed.
Still, his final months were lived on his terms: independent at home, with only modest outside help.
His funeral will be held at 10:15 a.m. Thursday from the Prophett Funeral Home, 98 Bedford St. (Rte. 18), Bridgewater, followed by a funeral Mass in St. Ann’s Church at 11 a.m. Burial in Pine Hill Cemetery. Reception to follow at Gary’s Restaurant, West Bridgewater.
Visiting hours are Wednesday 4-7 p.m.