MSU College of Social Science remembers the wisdom, mentorship and generosity of alumnus Burton Gerber

When Burton Gerber earned his international relations degree from Michigan State University in 1955, he signed up for a job that was cloaked in secrecy. But throughout a high profile and influential career with the Central Intelligence Agency, he never hid his love for being a Spartan.  

“Burton was a tremendous friend to Political Science and to the entire College of Social Science. He enjoyed meeting with students, providing mentorship, and sharing insights from his long and impactful career. His scholarship has supported many students interested in pursuing careers in public service over the last several decades,” said MSU PLS Interim Chair Jeffrey Conroy-Krutz. 

Born in Chicago, Gerber grew up in Ohio where he worked as a paperboy. The headlines during World War II sparked his interest in global affairs, according to his obituary in The Washington Post.  He came to MSU on a Detroit Free Press scholarship.  

“MSU was a very good experience,” Gerber told the MSU Alumni Association in 2006. “I had wonderful courses and professors.” 

He was recruited into the CIA on campus by a man who “could not tell me what the job would be, he couldn’t tell me anything about it, but would I be interested?” Gerber went back to his fraternity house and filled out the application, the Post reported. 

As CIA station chief in Moscow in the 1980s, he oversaw the operation for a trove of secret documents on Soviet military research and development, the Post wrote. He went on to be the Soviet division chief at CIA headquarters. 

Following his retirement in 1995, Gerber worked to renew connections to MSU, giving generously to the institution that set him on a course toward national security, said History Professor John Waller. 
Waller met Gerber in the spring of 2014 and convinced him to visit the Social Science Scholars students and share his stories of his life of espionage.  

“Year after year, Burton has imparted to Scholars the knowledge which comes from having spent a lifetime facing hard moral dilemmas and making strategic decisions of the utmost consequence. He has our students think hard about the existential threats to modern America, the sheer difficulty of making decisions when more than one course of action seems right, how they can keep themselves informed and free from partisanship, how to preserve the right balance between freedom and security, and the importance of service over ambition,” Waller wrote. 

“Proud of his Midwest roots and his education at a land grant university, Burton cherished the best of values; loyalty to a just cause, ethics of freedom and decency, conscientiousness in one’s professional life, and the imperative to read widely and deeply. My students and I will long remember him,” Waller said. 

With his wife Rosalie, Gerber endowed scholarships for those who wish to study international security affairs.  The Burton L. and Rosalie P. Gerber Scholarship has provided assistance to students with commitments to public service and a goal of joining foreign affairs or national intelligence.  

The Burton L. Gerber and Rosalie P. Gerber Endowment for the MSU Libraries promotes the study, research and understanding of the intelligence field and decision-making in regard to national security. Gerber had worked in the MSU Library’s Assigned Reading Room as an undergraduate. 

The Gerbers also generously supported the Social Science Scholars program and met frequently with Political Science and James Madison College students.  

In 2006, Gerber received the University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. And in 2018, he was the distinguished speaker and received the Spartan Statesmanship award at the Governor Jim Blanchard Public Service Forum.  

“Burton had a fascinating career,” said Blanchard. “When teaching students after he retired, he still couldn’t talk about a lot of what he did at the CIA! They loved him anyway, just as they did at our public service forum. In the last two decades, Burton Gerber and I bonded in our love of public service and our love for Michigan State. He was always grateful for his time in East Lansing while a student (editor of our yearbook) and later as a distinguished graduate.” 

Rosalie Gerber died in 1999. Gerber was 91 when he died Jan. 2 in his Washington D.C. home.

MSU alumnus Burton Gerber received the Spartan Statesmanship Award from former Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard in 2018. Photo by Gary Shrewsbury.