Wayne M. Burnette, 88;Chairman of Nonprofit Leadership Center
Wayne M. Burnette, 88, who served on more than 30 civic committees and headed the statewide council on school finance and the governor’s education task force in the early 1970s, died of natural causes Nov. 20 at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank
After working in public relations for Pacific Telephone for nearly 40 years, Burnette retired and in 1974 became chairman of the nonprofit Center for Leadership Development, then based in West Los Angeles. The center provided training to school superintendents throughout California in the 1970s. It also conducted postdoctoral leadership programs for women and minority professionals.
Most recently, Burnette was working with the center on a project to help middle schools reduce substance abuse and violence among students.
Burnette was born Sept. 14, 1917, in Goldsboro, N.C., and raised in Richmond, Va.
During World War II, he served in the South Pacific with the Army Signal Corps.
During the 1994 Northridge earthquake, his Studio City home was destroyed, and Burnette and his wife of 62 years, Dorothy, rebuilt it while living in a trailer on the property.
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