Gladys Burcham
1925 – 2019
Gladys Burcham, 93, was born at the farm house between Weatherford and Corn to John J. and Katie Hamburger on December 13, 1925. She attended the first eight grades in a one-room school, Enterprise. She graduated from Weatherford High School in 1944 and obtained her bachelor's degree from Southwestern Oklahoma State University in 1948. She taught Mathematics and Home Economics at Orlando, Oklahoma, and in Tulsa at Lowell and Bell; then in 1966-67 she taught at the American-Vietnamese International School in Saigon, Vietnam.
She married Ralph Burcham in 1950 and they celebrated 69 years of marriage on May 27, 2019. In 1960 she helped start an inner city work at West Main Mission. She filled numerous roles at the Memorial Road Church of Christ from 1963 to present.
She and Ralph directed Camp Rock Creek, near Norman, during summers from 1960-66. She helped many Vietnamese families resettle in America after the fall of Vietnam in 1975. She taught one-on-one Bible classes in the U.S. and Vietnam, Europe, Poland, and Hong Kong. She served as Circulation Librarian at Oklahoma Christian University from 1974-1991. In 2001 she was one of the honorees at Oklahoma Christian University's Spring Dinner.
She is survived by her husband, Ralph of Edmond; one son Roger of Edmond; and one daughter, Kathy who lives in San Francisco, California; one brother, Fred Hamburger of Lawton; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be at the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Edmond at 2:00 P.M. on Tuesday, August 6, 2019, with interment to follow at Memorial Park Cemetery. A public visitation will be held on Monday, August 5 from 1:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. at Matthews Funeral Home, the family will not be present for this informal visitation.