Burkhard lived life to the fullest. A teacher, hiker, skier, nature-lover and avid reader of history and news, he was loyal to his friends and family, and loved traveling the world.

Burkhard was born in Krefeld, Germany to Gunther and Hildegard Siedhoff. He spent his childhood in Osterode near the Harz Mountains. He came to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1964 for a work/study program, where he met Kay Renee Clauson. They married in 1966 and lived in Germany and Minnesota for the next 10 years, divorcing in 1976, soon after Burkhard began teaching German at the U.S. military base in Vilseck, Germany.

In 1978 he moved to San Francisco, and then Monterey, where he lived for the next 40 years as aGerman teacher at the Defense Language Institute. He married Barbara Rowlett in 1980, and they lived together in Carmel, Corral de Tierra and Seaside, and enjoyed time at their condo in Big Sky, Montana.

Burkhard was an inveterate hiker, leading hikes for the Sierra Club in and around his beloved Big Sur. No challenge was too great – he climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in his 70s. He also went on regular ski trips with friends. He loved his students at DLI, and worked hard to make his lesson plans fun and relevant.

Barbara died in 2019, soon after Burkhard returned to Minnesota to live with his first wife. She supported him emotionally and physically through gastric cancer and the dementia that eventually took his life.

Burkhard died of frontotemporal dementia on April 7, and was cremated. He is survived by many friends and relatives, particularly Kathryn Garner (Kay); his brothers Stefan and Klaus Siedhoff in Germany; and his stepdaughters Sue Fishkoff in Oakland, Nancy Holland in Seaside, and Gwen Porter in Del Rey Oaks.

A memorial service will be held in Monterey in July.