Dorothy (Dottie) Pilc Burck, 96, a lifelong resident of Oak Park since 1978, died on Aug. 21, 2025. Born to Joseph N. Pilc and Ludmila Vancura Pilc in New York City, on Jan. 12, 1929, she grew up in Flushing, Queens with her older sister, Florence, and her younger brother, Edwin. She matriculated at Queens College, majoring in mathematics.
A devout Christian, she taught at the Flushing Christian Day School for about 10 years before enrolling at the Biblical Seminary in New York, now named New York Theological Seminary, to prepare to be a director of Christian Education in a local congregation.
At Biblical she met J. Russell Burck, who saw her give a presentation on Petra that wowed him for its solid content, intelligence, and professionalism. They began to date and married on Aug. 6, 1960. In addition to being beautiful, she was a bona fide genius. They were married for 65 years. Each felt luckier than the other to have met and married.
Before marriage, Dottie taught in New York public schools. Later she tutored math students and was featured in a 1998 Newsweek article on tutoring. She regularly completed Sudoku and MahJong puzzles. The family spent three years in Stuttgart, Germany, in the early 1970s and traveled throughout Western Europe. She and Russ continued traveling in retirement, visiting Alaska, Labrador, Newfoundland, Australia, and New Zealand. They especially liked Colonial Williamsburg. Closer to home, they were members of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Lyric Opera.
Their children are Peter Burck (Susan Hoines) and Elizabeth (Lise) Varner (Allen Varner). She is also survived by a sister-in-law, Cecelia Ott; nieces and nephews, Karen Rockefeller, Dorothy Kerrigan, Lillian Martin, Victoria Flagg, Emily Pilc, Julia Collins, Sarah Bennett, Doris, Cindy, Richard, and Raymond Ott.
A Celebration of Life service will be held at 2 p.m., Nov. 15 at First United Church of Oak Park (848 Lake St.). The service will be livestreamed.
