College of Business honors alum’s ongoing leadership

Alumni Jerry Burtenshaw has provided   Washington State University and its students with a variety of support, from financing lectures and scholarships, to serving in an advisory capacity, to providing a role model for leadership.

In recognition, Burtenshaw (’56) was awarded the second Dean’s Distinguished Leadership Award at the College of Business’s inaugural Dean’s Leadership Event earlier this month. 

The award recognizes significant contributions made in the areas of outstanding philanthropy, community service and business leadership.

“Jerry Burtenshaw leads by example. His dedication and commitment to the College and to our School of Hospitality Business Management, and to creating opportunities for our students, is truly outstanding,” said CB Dean Eric Spangenberg, who presented Burtenshaw with the award in front of an audience of CB alumni, friends, and volunteers.

“I can’t think of a more deserving person for this award who has made such a significant difference in the live of so many students,” says Terry Umbreit, director of the School of Hospitality Business Management. “Jerry Burtenshaw has been instrumental in helping the school enhance its quality and national image through his leadership and financial support.”

After graduating from WSU’s hospitality program in 1956, he joined the family business and helped his father, Denver Burtenshaw, open restaurants throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Burtenshaw later headed international catering and concessions company Alpine-Burtco, providing concessions service to eminent Northwest locations including the Kingdome, the Tacoma Dome, and Joe Albi Stadium in Spokane, Wash., in addition to servicing a number of overseas contracts. He is currently the chairman of ABC Services.

Together with his wife, Angelina, he created the Burtenshaw Lecture Series to commemorate their son, Brett, who planned to enter WSU’s hospitality program but was tragically struck down in an automobile accident. The lecture series is now one of the industry’s most distinguished, and will turn 25 this year. The couple also established the Calvin Brett Burtenshaw Memorial Scholarship for students planning to study hospitality business management at Washington State University.

As the founding member of the Hospitality Business Management Advisory Board, Burtenshaw has provided support and volunteer leadership to the program. He is a former trustee of the WSU Foundation and in 1982, he received one of WSU’s highest honors—the Alumni Achievement Award. A two-term president of the Washington Restaurant Association, he was selected as the Hospitality Man of the Year in 1980. Burtenshaw was inducted into the College of Diplomats by the Educational Foundation of the National Restaurant Association in 1992.