William and Mary Alumni Magazine | Winter 2007/2008, Vol. 73, No. 2
Photo by Tom Altany
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Facing life's challenges is nothing new to Linda Burke. Not only did she have to surmount the changing tide of corporate America, becoming one of the first women ever to hold an executive position at Alcoa, but she also faced the challenge of being hearing impaired in a world that did not have as many technological advances as today.
Burke did well as a high school student growing up in West Virginia. Her parents encouraged her to look at good colleges outside the state, although most of her classmates were headed toward West Virginia University. While at the College she thought of becoming an English major, but one English professor (who was not at the College long) would ridicule her for her hearing impairment. She became so frustrated with his insensitivity she decided to major in government since she loved the classes and enjoyed learning under those professors. It was between her junior and senior years that she decided to go see a doctor and get hearing aids.
"Hearing aids changed everything," says Burke. "My grades went from Bs to As. My hearing really affected my learning." At the age of 25 she knew she would be completely deaf by 50 -- what she didn't know was that advances in science would change her life. In 2004, she received a cochlear implant and regained 75 percent of her hearing.
After William and Mary, Burke attended the University of Pittsburgh's law school, receiving her juris doctor degree in 1973. While at Pitt she met her husband, Tim Burke, who is also a lawyer, and it was at Pitt that Burke took her first tax course.
"Tax can be strategic but it's very tactical," says Burke. "The intellectual challenge of trying to make everything fit was tremendously rewarding and fun."
That same year she landed her first job at Alcoa, a major aluminum company in Pittsburgh, and was one of the first women hired in the legal department. She faced some negativity as the only woman in a department full of men, but usually it was from attorneys outside Alcoa. "When you are in the breaking wave, you can't let those things bother you or you will never get things done," says Burke.
She spent the next 27 years with the company, climbing the corporate ladder as she raised her two children, Hannah and Ryan. It wasn't an easy time for women, but Alcoa was a good place to work. As she was retiring from Alcoa, she was recruited for one of the top legal jobs in the Internal Revenue Service. "Anything bad that people say about the tax code I would probably agree with," she says. "The code is a mess and makes it almost impossible for the average person to comply with, but no one has the courage to reform it."
Her job with the IRS made it possible for her to do what she does now -- teaching corporate tax at Pitt's law school and working as a consultant on tax cases involving complex issues across the country.
Being retired and working part time allows Burke to do something else she loves -- travel. "My favorite city in the whole world is Rome because it has soul. There is so much you can see, and you can feel Rome." She also loves Pittsburgh and has served on the board of a number of community organizations there. "The longer we stay here the more we love it," says Burke. "It has big city amenities with a small town feel."
While at William and Mary, Burke was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and the women's swimming team, as a diver. In the 1980s, Burke participated in the successful effort to save that swimming program. She also has served as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and has participated in other alumni activities.
"In every aspect of her life, as a student, as a board member for the Alumni Association, and now as a volunteer, Linda has displayed an unwavering affection for William and Mary," says Sam Sadler '64, M.Ed. '71, vice president for student affairs, "and her contributions ... are to its spirit and its great future."
One of the issues that Burke has become increasingly passionate about is embracing racial and cultural diversity -- so much so that she endowed diversity programming during the College's last campaign. "We cannot be so proud of our own heritage," says Burke, "that we cannot appreciate others'."
Linda Beerbower Burke '70 | Randall S. Hawthorne '67, J.D. '70, M.L.T. '71
Suzann Wilson Matthews '71 | Patrisia Bayliss Owens '62
A complete listing of Burke's professional, civic and College involvement
