Floyd McBurney

• Comment: This is worth a review based on WP:BIO rather than the narrower WP:NPOLITICIAN. Mc Burney may have sufficient notability outside politics. Another reviewer needs to look, please 🇵🇸‍🇺🇦 Fiddle^Timtrent Faddle^Talk to me 🇺🇦‍🇵🇸 15:19, 21 September 2026 (UTC)

• Comment: DA does not qualify under WP:NPOLITICIAN. Otherwise a perosn who had a good career, and did good things, but a WP:BIO is not yet proven. This disability centre might in and of itself be notable, though 🇵🇸‍🇺🇦 Fiddle^Timtrent Faddle^Talk to me 🇺🇦‍🇵🇸 07:17, 27 August 2026 (UTC)

• Comment: Vague and redundant analysis such as is characteristic of LLM usage; ideally you should remove all prose from the draft and start over from a blank slate without LLMs. Helpful Raccoon (talk) 02:32, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

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Floyd W. "Mike" McBurney Jr. (January 11, 1938 – February 20, 1967) was an American attorney, disability advocate, and politician who was elected district attorney of Dane County, Wisconsin, in 1966. Paralyzed after a 1954 diving accident in Lake Mendota, he completed high school, graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Wisconsin Law School, and practiced law in Madison. He died shortly after taking office at age 29. The University of Wisconsin–Madison's McBurney Disability Resource Center is named in his memory.

Early life and injury

McBurney was born in Madison, Wisconsin, to Floyd W. McBurney Sr. and Martha Boesler McBurney. His father was a Madison attorney with whom McBurney later practiced law.

McBurney attended Madison West High School. On August 29, 1954, at age 16, he sustained a cervical spinal cord injury after diving into shallow water in Lake Mendota near Middleton Beach. The injury left him largely paralyzed from the neck down, with limited use of his shoulders and arms.

After the accident, McBurney continued his high school education while studying from a hospital bed, with family members helping him with books and study materials. He was elected to the National Honor Society at Madison West High School and received his diploma with his classmates.

Education and legal career

McBurney attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison using a combination of in-person classes and correspondence study. After recovering some shoulder and chest muscle use, he used adaptive methods including a specialized, self-designed device on his lower arm that enabled him to type and a pencil strapped to his finger to write.

McBurney graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1960 with a degree in sociology, in the top five percent of his class. He then attended the University of Wisconsin Law School, graduating in 1963 and finishing third in his law-school class. In addition to being an honors graduate, McBurney was a member of the Order of the Coif, an editor of the Wisconsin Law Review, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

After graduation, McBurney practiced law with his father in Madison. He wrote articles, gave speeches, served as secretary of the Dane County Bar Association, edited and wrote for the bar association newsletter, and hosted a television program titled The Topic for the Day. He was a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin, the American Bar Association, the American Judicature Society, the American Arbitration Association, and the Wisconsin Welfare Council.

Disability advocacy

McBurney participated in disability-related public service. He chaired an Easter Seals committee and was selected as a state "handicapped man-of-the-year" by the Wisconsin Junior Chamber of Commerce. He also served as state chairman of governmental affairs for the Wisconsin Junior Chamber of Commerce.

While an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin, McBurney became acquainted with James A. Graaskamp, a faculty member in the School of Business and a fellow wheelchair user. McBurney and Graaskamp advocated for improved access to Wisconsin public buildings. UW–Madison credits their work with helping lay the foundation for its later disability services program.

1966 Dane County district attorney campaign

In 1966, McBurney ran as the Republican candidate for district attorney of Dane County, Wisconsin. His campaign used the slogan "Clean, Fair, Efficient Law Enforcement" and appealed to voters "for all Dane County".

During the campaign, McBurney's disability was not hidden from public view; campaign materials used a stylized Republican emblem showing an elephant in a racing wheelchair with the initials "GOP".

A post-election photograph showed McBurney with his longtime nurse, Anna Thiessen. McBurney credited Thiessen with helping him through high school, college, law school, and the election.

McBurney ran against incumbent Democrat Michael B. Torphy Jr. Although he was a political novice, he defeated Torphy by about 8,000 votes, 39,920 to 31,877.

At age 28, McBurney became the first Republican elected to a Dane County office in fourteen years.

After the election, McBurney planned to continue pending grand-jury cases and said he would call a grand jury if he believed one was needed. He added, "You can't keep a good Irishman like myself out of court."

District attorney and illness

McBurney took office as Dane County district attorney in January 1967. A newspaper photograph published on January 3, 1967, showed him in a reception line after newly installed Dane County officers took the oath of office and identified him as the only Republican among the county officers then taking office.

On January 30, 1967, McBurney underwent emergency surgery for a hemorrhaging ulcer after becoming ill at home at 915 Waban Hill in Madison. The Wisconsin State Journal reported the next day that he had been on full-time duty in his office and in court since becoming district attorney, and that Assistant District Attorney John Moore was placed in charge of the office during McBurney's recovery. February 17 media reports indicated that his condition had been improving before later complications developed.

Death

McBurney died on February 20, 1967, at age 29, from a lung infection that followed surgery for the bleeding ulcer. The Wisconsin State Journal described his election as one of the proudest moments of his life and reported that he was the first Republican candidate in eighteen years to win any of Dane County's eight elective offices. The Capital Times wrote that his short career had won the admiration of Madison and described his district-attorney campaign as an extensive campaign in his electric wheelchair.

His funeral was held at St. John's Lutheran Church in Madison, and he was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery. His longtime nurse, Anna Thiessen, was later interred in the same family plot. Madison's City Council later expressed sympathy on behalf of city residents after his death.

Family

McBurney was survived by his parents, Floyd W. McBurney Sr. and Martha Boesler McBurney, and his sister, Georgianna "Gary" Stebnitz.

Floyd Sr. and Martha McBurney devoted their lives to supporting him until his death in 1967. Floyd Sr., together with Professor James Graaskamp, helped start the McBurney Disability Resource Center.

McBurney Disability Resource Center

The McBurney Disability Resource Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison was named in memory of Floyd "Mike" McBurney. According to the center, after McBurney's death Graaskamp approached the McBurney family with the idea of using memorial contributions to establish a formal disability services office. Working with Dean of Students Paul Ginsberg and Assistant Dean Blair Mathews, the center was founded in 1977 and became one of the first offices of its kind in the United States.

In 1977, the McBurney Resource Center installed a tactile, three-dimensional map of the UW–Madison campus for persons with disabilities at Bascom Hall. The map used raised buildings, textured streets, pin-head stop signs, braille labels, and a movable coordinate bar to help blind students navigate campus.

The University of Wisconsin Foundation has described Graaskamp, who was paralyzed by polio as a teenager, as one of the primary campus leaders who helped create the center in the late 1970s. The Foundation stated that Graaskamp encouraged naming the center after his friend "Mike" McBurney and that a gift from the McBurney family fund provided initial financial support. In 2011, Mike's sister, Georgianna McBurney Stebnitz, attended the center's grand opening and dedication of the James Graaskamp Conference Room.

By the 2024–2025 academic year, the McBurney Center reported 5,791 affiliated students across primary disability groups including ADD/ADHD, autism spectrum, brain injury, health condition, hearing disability, learning disability, mobility or physical disability, psychological disability, temporary disability, visual disability, and other or undiagnosed disabilities.

Legacy

In April 1967, blood donations were organized in McBurney's honor, including a living memorial at the Badger Blood Center and a bloodmobile event at Cherokee School. In 1973, The Capital Times reported that a $10,000 bequest had been made to the University of Wisconsin Law School in McBurney's memory.

See also

• Disability rights movement
• University of Wisconsin–Madison
• Dane County, Wisconsin
• James A. Graaskamp

References

This article "Floyd McBurney" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Floyd McBurney. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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