David Burke dies; longtime NYPD cop from LI was 89

In his precious free time, amid a busy police career and raising five children, David Burke enjoyed revisiting the Irish culture of his childhood spent in County Tipperary.

“He was a true Irishman. He listened to Irish music every Sunday, he belonged to the Irish American Society in Mineola,” said his daughter Mary Burke. “Everything Irish, he loved.”

Burke, of Islip, died of a heart attack Monday at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore. He was 89.

Born in Union City, New Jersey, in 1926, Burke and his family returned to the family’s farm near the village of Rosegreen in Ireland when he was 18 months old.

He stayed in the area through his early 20s, teaching in a Catholic school in Belfast, Northern Ireland, before returning to America in 1949. He was drafted and served in the Army in Hawaii during the waning days of the Korean War.

Burke met Catherine Crumlish at a dance hall in Brooklyn and the two married in 1954 — a local notice pointed out that Crumlish’s parents came from counties Donegal and Mayo.

Burke joined the New York Police Department in 1958 and worked in the 24th and 107th precincts during his nearly three decades with the police.

SEE PHOTOSNotable deaths: Long Islanders we recently lost

“He’d had his picture on the front page of the Daily News many, many years ago capturing a fugitive,” said Mary Burke, a longtime Newsday editorial assistant in the photography department.

The Burke family moved from Brooklyn to Seaford in the 1960s. After retiring in 1986, Burke spent his days gardening at his home in Seaford and later in Islip, playing with his eight grandchildren and traveling back to Ireland frequently.

“He was very connected to his grandchildren, what sports they played,” Mary Burke said. “He was all about the family. We were a very close bunch.”

Catherine Burke died in 2010. In addition to his daughter, Burke is survived by daughter Patricia Rogers of Islip; son Kevin Burke of Massapequa; son Michael Burke of Lynbrook, and daughter Christine Masi of Freeport; and his brother, Patrick Burke, of Southport, North Carolina.

A wake is Wednesday at the Charles G. Schmitt Funeral Home in Seaford from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. The funeral service will be 10 a.m. Thursday at St. William the Abbot Church in Seaford, followed by burial at St. Charles Cemetery in East Farmingdale.