Burt Russell Shurly

AS THE YOUNG DOCTOR AND VIOLA, HIS WIFE OF SEVEN YEARS, stepped out of Detroit’s First Unitarian Church on Cass Avenue on that bright spring day in 1913, the funeral services of his uncle, Ernest Lorenzo Shurly, having just ended, his mind was swirling. He had, of all things, just purchased his troubled alma mater, the Detroit School of Medicine, in an auction. And so, at the relatively young age of 41, he was the first and only man in America to own outright his own medical school. Adding to his burdens, he and his late uncle, a doctor of international repute, had been in the midst of converting the medical office building they shared on Detroit’s West Adams Avenue into a badly needed hospital. Now his revered mentor and partner was gone. or Shurly brought to the deliberations of the Detroit school board the rock solid core principles and beliefs that he would defend until the day he died. He never wavered in his belief in these principles and never backed away from an argument with anyone who opposed them. First and foremost, he was a patriot and loved his country. He inherently knew that appeasement of enemies led to war, and so believed that the United States military must remain strong. He vigorously opposed demilitarization and reduction of the armed forces after World War I. Second, he recognized, long before much of the media and many government officials did, that socialism and communism were dangerous, enticing, unworkable concepts, and he vigorously opposed them wherever encountered. Further, he understood that the Soviet Union’s goal was to communize the world, and that to further that goal, Soviet sympathizers would always advocate a weak American military complex. Third, he felt that it was imperative that all children get a solid education and as much health care as needed. Whenever parents or relatives were unable to provide it, he believed health care should be provided by the government and school systems. Fourth, he came to believe that Prohibition was generating far too many harmful unanticipated consequences. He saw that disrespect for the law, not only by adults but also by school children, was increasing and that the unregulated, non-taxpaying saloons, speakeasies or "blind pigs" as many called them, often located near schools, were rapidly replacing what had been tax-paying saloons. There was no question in his mind that Prohibition was helping to generate a strong criminal underworld. Burt Shurly was unshakable in these beliefs and never hesitated to speak out for his principles regardless of people's feelings. One might say that Shurly was the antithesis of "political correctness" when it came to defending these principles.