Lloyd Mitchell Burstein was born in Granville, Ill., April 30, 1920, to Nathan and Goldie Burstein. As a young child his family moved to Southern California. Growing up during the depression, he and his four siblings spend their teenage years at Vista Del Mar, a co-op home for Jewish children. As the oldest son, he led the family though this difficult time. He put himself through college at UCLA, graduated with a degree in physics and was drafted into the Army as a private and attended Officer Candidate School. In the late days of WWII he was deployed as a battalion radar officer stationed in the Pacific on the Island of Ulithi.
After WWII, Burstein settled in Washington, D.C., and joined the Civil Aeronautics Administration; which became the FAA where he worked for more that 35 years, retiring in 1983. In 1957 he and his wife, Inge, settled in Vienna, where he raised his family and devoted much of his time and energy to charitable causes and campaigned for many Democratic Party candidates. He helped found and volunteered with the Higher Horizons Program, a study hall program that operated out of Louise Archer Elementary. Burstein was a member of the Council on Human Relations, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and was active in founding a local chapter of the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights. He marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King in his 1963 "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom" where King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. He spent many years as an active member of the Fairfax and Acotink Unitarian Universalists Congregations.
Burstein received multiple community service awards, including the Fairfax County Human Rights CommissionÕs 1999 Human Rights Award "In Appreciation of Outstanding Service in the Field of Human Rights." Burstein moved to the Summerset Retirement Village in Sterling in 2004.
He died March 7, 2008, at Fairfax Inova Hospital of pneumonia. He is survived by his wife, Inge Burstein of Sterling; his sons, Wayne and Eric; his sister, Rose Lane of Westlake Village, Calif.; and two granddaughters. There will be a service 2 p.m. Friday, March 14, at Money and King Funeral Hone, 171 Maple Ave. W., Vienna, 703-938-7440. A reception will immediately follow at Marco Polo Restaurant, 245 Maple Ave. W., Vienna, 703-281-3922. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Beacon House, P.O. Box 29629, Washington, D.C. 20017 or the Alzheimer's Association, 225 N. Michigan Ave., Floor 17, Chicago, Ill. 60601-7633.