| OCR Text |
Show 7- - I . -kL l PHOTOGRAPHY Jim Haskert AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of the Bountiful Area Chamber of Commerce, Haven often of-ten helps newcomers to the city find area attractions. Here, he assists Donna Har-brecht Har-brecht and her daughter Amy with some brochures. Haven Burningham Really is 'Mr. Bountiful' By TOM HARALDSEN BOUNTIFUL-It was a typical day in the life of Haven Burning-ham. Burning-ham. He spent the morning briefing a young couple w ho'd just moved to the area on local merchants and community activities. At noon, he hosted a luncheon for the Bountiful Area Chamber of Commerce, introducing in-troducing the guest speakers, and conducting business in between bites of food. for information that had arrived during his absence. IT'S ALL IN a day's work for Buringham, who, as executive director of the Chamber, monitors the day-to-day business activity of the six communities in southern Davis County. His smiling face, sharp wit and pleasant personality are well known in the area, but the story behind the story may not be as familiar to most. Haven is truly a native of Bounti- 'IN THOSE days, we all had to commute to Davis High on the old Bamberger Railroad. I still remember remem-ber boarding that train, sitting on the wooden benches, then making the 45 minute trip up to Kaysville," he recalls. His memories of the Bamberger are fresh, and he feels the county could use the same type of intercity transit system today. FOLLOWING graduation. Haven attended the University of 1 think Bountiful needs to be aggressive.' LATER THAT afternoon, he braved wind and rain to attend a ribbon-cutting for a new business, and smiled brightly as a photographer-friend of the business' owner took snapshots of the soggy event. Then he was back to the office, to handle another stack of requests fill, born and raised in a home that still stands today across from Lakcview Hospital. His father Irvin was a farmer, his mother Mary a farmer's wife. Haven attended Stoker School in Bountiful, Bounti-ful, then South Davis Junior High, and graduated from Davis High School in Kaysville. Utah, taking general study subjects, sub-jects, then left for an LDS mission to New Zealand, he was only in that country for 1 8 months before the outbreak of World War 11. when he was called back and sent to California's San Joaquin valley Continued on page two Haven is really 'Mr. Bountiful' Continued from page one to complete another nine months of missionary work. The next few years saw the beginning be-ginning of the aviation era in Haven's life. He began working for Lockheed Aircraft in southern California, then joined the Aviation Avia-tion cadets, and arm in those days of the U.S. Army Air Corps. In July 1942, Haven Burningham was sworn in as a cadet and placed on active duty. D.C., and Taiwan. He was the assistant U.S. Attache for five years in Istanbul, beginning in 1953. He spent 14 years working in intelligence at the Air Force National Na-tional Headquarters in Washington, Washing-ton, .most of that time working at the Pentagon. His last duty before retiring from the Air Force as a Colonel in 1974 was serving as assistant chief of staff in Taiwan. WHILE IN the nation's capital, Haven earned a degree in Military Science from the University of Maryland. Later, after returning to Utah, he earned two more degrees, in Business and Economics, and in Behavorial Science, from Westminster West-minster College of Salt Lake City. He became executive director for the Chamber in 1980, where he has served since. His love of Bountiful Boun-tiful and the surrounding communities communi-ties was part of the reason for his choosing the job. "I WANTED the Chamber to have a larger impact on the community com-munity than it had had," he said. "I wanted it to get involved in the political aspect of the community." com-munity." He is proud of the Chamber's efforts to work with schools, discussing dis-cussing the virtues of free enterprise, enter-prise, and the formation last year of the Benchmark economic development develop-ment region. TODAY, HAVEN helps with over 425 member businesses in the Chamber. He is on the Board of Directors of the Utah State Chamber Cham-ber of Commerce, and is a member of the National association. He and his wife Afton, the granddaughter of Perrigrine Sessions, earliest known settler in Bountiful, are the parents of two sons: Kent, a patent attorney in Salt Lake, and Tod, an executive with Midwest Airlines in Kansas. They also have three grandchildren. As for the future, Haven feels optimistic. "I THINK Bountiful and the areas around it need to be aggressive. aggres-sive. We need to seek more executive execu-tive offices, more corporate headquarters. head-quarters. There are a lot of good things ahead that can happen in Bountiful," he said. Haven Burningham has weathered weath-ered many tests in his life thus far, from economic depressions to German Ger-man bombs. He is a person capable , of facing whatever life throws at him in the years ahead. HAVEN BURNINGHAM FOLLOWING PILOT training in Santa Ana, Calif, the next winter, he began training in the B-17 aircraft air-craft in Roswell, New Mexico. Then it was off to Europe. "I was a member of the 8th Air Force unit in England. We went on more than 30 bombing missions over Germany and France, trying to wipe out the Nazi's research on missiles and atomic bombs," he recalled. re-called. Haven told of an evening in London when a German V-l missile, mis-sile, the "buzz bomb" as it was known, leveled a city block not too far from where he was attending a church meeting.. "YOU COULD here those missiles mis-siles coming for quite a while, and when they hit, I'll never forget the sound. I ran around a corner and a whole city block was ablaze," he said. In January 1945, Haven was transferred back to Hobbs, New Mexico as an instructor pilot for the B-17. Over the next 30 years, he served in the U.S. Air Force in Alaska, Turkey, Washington |
