Danville & Pleasanton

Lambert was born to Albert and Fay Bassler (Arkin) in the midst of the Depression in the working class Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago. His parents came from very large Jewish families which they had to help support rather than going to high school. They also converted to Christianity and raised Lambert as a Christian, to the dismay of his Jewish aunts and uncles. By the time he reached adulthood, Burt rejected religious faith in favor of a humanistic and science-based philosophy.

He did, however, have an enduring love of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, and he and all his children could sing every word of the album by heart.

After graduating from grammar school in 1949, Lambert decided to attend Chicago’s famous Lane Tech high school, an all-boy’s school with 5,000 students. Since Lane was four miles away from his old neighborhood, he felt this would be an opportune time to change his name to something less onerous than Lambert. (He often said that being named Lambert in the tough Wicker Park neighborhood was “character forming.”) So he began calling himself “Burt” and was known by that name for the rest of his life. He made the Lane wrestling team as a sophomore, earning three letters and winning the city championship at 155 lbs. in 1953. He was called “Bassler the Wrassler” by his friends and enjoyed getting a good laugh by referring to himself that way throughout his life.

As the first of his large extended family to go to college, Burt attended the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, majoring in business administration and graduating cum laude in 1957. He then did two years of graduate work in labor and employment relations. He was able to finance his education by “slinging chow” in a cafeteria for four years and summer jobs loading trucks, factory work and selling Collier’s encyclopedias door-to-door.

While in graduate school, he met Virginia (Ginny) Roth, a graduate student from Michigan who, conveniently, lived in the same apartment building. They dated for a year, married on August 22, 1959 and immediately moved to Chicago to find employment and pay off her college debts.

Burt’s career included various human resources positions with Commonwealth Edison, Exxon and then Eastern Airlines, where he worked for ten years in Miami as director of employee relations and corporate director in charge of training. In 1977, he moved to the Bay Area as vice president of human resources for the Di Giorgio Corporation, and in 1982 he founded Bassler Associates, Inc., a human resources consulting company with major clients such as Viacom, Mattel, Lear Siegler, Reader’s Digest, and Universal Studios.

Burt fully retired in 2000 and became involved in two prominent Bay Area non-profits: he was the founding president of the Hospice of the East Bay Foundation and on Hospice’s board for over 20 years. He was also a board member of Save Mount Diablo and its treasurer for several years. He also had time to fulfill a fantasy he had as akid growing up in the bowels of Chicago, namely to ride a horse on a beautiful mountain. So for many years he rode his horse, Jett, several times aweek on Mount Diablo. He also became an avid bocce ball and poker player, allowing him to make wonderful new friends.

Burt’s spontaneity, sense of humor and refusal to take himself seriously despite his many accomplishments endeared him to everyone who knew him.

Sadly, Ginny passed away in 1983 after a short illness at age 46. Two years later, Burt met Gloria Lotten, who became his best friend and partner for 40 years, and with whom he travelled throughout the U.S, Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America.

Burt is survived by his daughter Elissa Bassler and her son, Jake of Evanston, IL; his daughter Bonnie Bassler and her husband Todd Reichart of Princeton, NJ; and his son Rodrick Bassler and his wife Maya Kanamori and their two sons, Casey and Kellen of Pleasant Hill, CA.

To quote Frank Sinatra and his favorite song: But more, much more than this, he did it his way!

Donations in Burt’s memory can be made to Save Mount Diablo (SaveMountDiablo.org).