Robert Burns

Robert J. Burns (March 17, 1926 – March 14, 2016) was an American Democratic Party politician who served two terms in the New Jersey General Assembly from the 38th Legislative District.

Biography Burns was born on March 17, 1926, in Jersey City to Helen and John Henry Burns. First attending St. Patrick's School, he later attended Lincoln High School and Henry Snyder High School. During World War II, he served in the United States Army with the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment and the 82nd Airborne Division. He graduated from Seton Hall University, receiving a B.S. in 1955. He also attended Seton Hall Law School for one year. During the 1960s and '70s, he was a sales representative for the Tube Sales Company in Cranbury; however, later in life, he was a sales manager at the David Smith Steel Company in South Plainfield and for Industrial Waste Technologies in Oakland. The two were reelected in 1977 by a slightly larger margin but were both defeated in 1979 by Republicans John B. Paolella and Louis F. Kosco. Burns would make three more attempts at the Assembly: in 1981 where he lost in the general election, in 1983 where he won the Democratic primary but dropped out of the general election due to job commitments,

Burns was married to the former Eleanor Solinski and had four children. He died on March 14, 2016, three days before his 90th birthday.