William A.M. Burden papers

William Armistead Moale Burden, Jr., born in New York City in 1906, was a business executive, art collector, and diplomat. He attended Harvard College, but also enrolled in special courses in flying studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduating from Harvard in 1927, Burden was hired as an aviation research analyst, first working for Brown, Brothers Harriman & Company and later for Scudder, Stevens and Clark, from 1932 to 1938. As a research analyst, Burden provided in-depth research and analysis of airline companies within the fledgling industry, thereby gaining extensive knowledge of the aviation industry. After World War II, Burden was employed as an aviation consultant for Smith Barney & Company and Special Assistant for Research and Development to the Secretary of the Air Force. In 1959, he was appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower to serve as Ambassador to Belgium, a post he held until 1961. Burden also served as trustee of Columbia University, director of the Council on Foreign Relations, chairman of the Institute for Defense Analysis and at various times director of other major companies. He died in 1984.

The Burden family has strong philanthropic ties to Harvard. In 1971, together with his mother, Florence Vanderbilt Twombly Burden and brother Shirley C. Burden, William A.M. Burden, Jr. donated Burden Auditorium to Harvard Business School. The building was dedicated to honor Burden's late father, William A.M. Burden Sr. (Harvard 1900) and his late son, William A.M. Burden III (Harvard 1953 MBA 1955).