Marcia Burick, political worker, daughter of sports editor Si Burick, dies at 81

Jun. 7—Marcia E. Burick, longtime political writer and consultant and daughter of Dayton Daily News sports editor and columnist Si Burick, died on Saturday, June 4, at 81 years old, according to her obituary.

Marcia Burick was born in Dayton in 1940 to Simon and Rachael Burick, and graduated from Fairview High School before earning a degree in Political Science from Wellesley College.

On graduating, Burick was given two Mai Ling Soong prizes from a foundation of the same name at the college, allowing her to attend a NATO Youth Conference in France.

From there, just a few weeks before the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, she joined the staff of the Press and Public Affairs Office of the U.S. Mission to the U.N., under the leadership of Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson.

Over the next decade, Burick had two children and moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, where she lived until she died. While there, earned a master's degree in Urban Studies at Smith College, writing her thesis on Hong Kong resettlement housing. To write the thesis, she received the Mary Elvira Stevens Travelling Fellowship from Wellesley College.

In Northampton, Burick continued to be active in politics and the community, working as a press director and speech writer for various organizations like Planned Parenthood of New York City, the Institute for International Education, The Fund for Peace and the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

Connected to that last organization, Burick became the press officer for the visit of the Chinese table tennis team to the U.S. in 1972. She traveled with the teams in April 1972 around the U.S.

She served as chief aide to the mayor of Northampton for "a number" of years, according to her obituary, during which time she organized and went on several trips around the world.

She also was a consultant on social services, often for U.S. government agencies, for best practices in places like the Baltics, Poland, Nigeria, Gaza and South Africa, and ran a program for training government officials in Indonesia.

Burick died in her sleep after celebrating her 60th reunion at Wellesley College.

The Dayton Daily News awards an annual scholarship in Si Burick's name to a journalism student that interns with the paper.