Thomas Burke was a lawyer and member of the New York City Board of Education i(1964-1968), and a Trustee if the Altman Foundation (1948-1998), which owned the 5th Avenue department store. Tom was the nephew of Lamb Edwin Burke, and Oscar winning writer. A graduate of Yale with a law degree from Columbia, and a World War II veteran (US Navy). Tom was a partner in the Manhattan law firm White & Case. Tom’s father, John Burke, was the president of B. Altman & Company.
Tom served the administration of five presidents (Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and G.W.H. Bush) and was honored by numerous foreign governments for his understand of world peace initiatives. He served as the president, CEO and Executive director of a number of the nation’s largest port authorities, spend 10 years with the Delaware and Hudson Railroad. A former Panama Canal Commissioner. Inducted into the International Maritime Hall of Fame at the United Nations, served as the Chairmen of the National Maritime Security Discussion Agreement, and was Senior Advisaor to the President and CEO of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. in Washington D.C.