Class of 2020

Alexander G. Burdo ’20, of Fairfield, Conn., and Yarmouth Port, Mass.; Oct. 29. He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma at age 12. His obituary read, “No matter the state of his health, he didn’t let the disease limit him, rather he used it to live life fully, casting away any thoughts of mortality. Alex had a deep love and respect for all birds, which he often credited with saving his life and his six years in remission; his favorite was the Florida scrub jay. From the age of ten he wanted to be an ornithologist and could often be seen with binoculars draped around his neck and a bird guide in hand.” In 2010 at age 13, he was the youngest recipient of the L.L. Bean  Outdoor Heroes award for his dedication to the Connecticut Audubon Society. He was a founding member and served as president of the Connecticut Young Birders Association and was  involved in banding at the Birdcraft Sanctuary in Fairfield. He was also a volunteer at the Wing Island Bird Banding Station in Brewster, Mass. In addition to being an Avian Point-Count Technician at the Intermountain Bird Observatory in Montana, he was active with the Connecticut and Massachusetts Audubon Societies, participating in the Christmas Bird Counts in both states. While at Brown, he wrote for the Brown Political Review, was a member of Kellner Lab, and was a teaching assistant. Additionally, he was a research assistant for two of his advisors studying the white-collared manakin in Costa Rica; the resulting work is being prepared for publication. For many years he maintained his blog, aphelocoma.com, where he’d write about birds and travels. He also enjoyed photography, politics, geography, history, astronomy, linguistics, music, the Boston Red Sox, the Miami Dolphins, and University of Michigan football. His memory was remarkable and he could relay the statistics for any major league player, give the scientific names for thousands of birds, discuss current global politics, and recite song lyrics from the 1970s. He is survived by his girlfriend Ann Walters;  his parents; two sisters; and many extended family and friends.  

Leo M. Shiner ’20, of Hamilton, N.Y.; Sept. 8. At the time of his passing he was enrolled in a master’s program in Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaii. While at Brown, he studied for a semester in Yaroslavl, Russia, concentrated in linguistics and Slavic studies, and was involved in Tech House and Brown's Catholic community. He cared deeply about political issues because of his concern for all marginalized people and started a chapter of Amnesty International in high school. In subsequent years he tutored children, taught English to immigrants, and registered young people and people of color to vote. He enjoyed music and played cello and sang. He was passionate about the preservation of endangered languages and the well-being of the Indigenous people who speak them. He taught himself multiple languages and had been working on designing an innovative language-learning video game that he hoped would make language learning accessible to all people. He shared his humor and knowledge of languages on his linguistics meme pages, the most popular of which, Etymology Memes for Reconstructed Phonemes on Facebook is followed by over 100,000 people around the world. He is survived by his parents, a sister, grandparents, and an uncle.