Charles "Charlie" Burdsal

June 7, 1944 ~ September 10, 2021
Charles Burdsal passed away September 10, 2021.
Charlie was born June 7, 1944 in Kansas City, MO. He made his way down to Texas in the 1950’s and stayed up until he graduated with his PhD from Texas Tech. Charlie started at Wichita State University in 1972 and was currently still teaching. His long tenure at WSU included him serving as the Dept. Chair in Psychology, helping establish the doctoral programs for the department and was also in charge of the Social Science Research Lab. He loved gardening, traveling and photography.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Charles and Thaddie Burdsal. Charlie is survived by his wife of 41 years, Jeanne Burdsal; step-daughter, Kristin Morgan (Craig); granddaughter, Kaitlyn Watson.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Wichita State University Foundation.
Funeral will be at 11:00 am, Thursday, September 16, 2021, at Downing & Lahey East Mortuary. The funeral will be live streamed and available to view by clicking “Watch Event” below.
Dr. Burdsal will never be forgotten as he touched so many lives. He will be truly missed! Prayers to the family. God Bless, Marci
The very first time I ever taught a class, was in my 2nd year in the community/clincial program at WSU. It was about 10 days before classes started in the Fall and I was in the Psych Dept. main office and Charlie came up to me and said the Dean had been pressuring him to open another section of developmental psychology and he was on his way to a meeting about it, and he said “this is never going to happen, but just in case… would you be interested , just so I have a back-up.” I said sure, I mean it is never going to happen so why not? Two-hours later I had just walked into my apartment and got a phone call from the Dean saying how pleased he was that I was going to be teaching developmental psychology that Fall. I laughed to myself and said… so, Charlie, it is never going to happen… Next winter will be my 28th year of teaching developmental psychology. I also have to share, that before I met Charlie I was not just mathphobic, I was a borderline anti-math activist. I HATED math and Charlie’s stats class was the last thing I wanted to take. After that first semester with Charlie though I was hooked. I ended up with a minor in quantitative psychology and 30 years later find myself the director of Wayne State University’s Research Design and Analysis Center. Somehow Charlie always knew – even when you didn’t. ~Death, be not proud, though some call thee mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so.