If you were a reporter in Rochester a few years ago, one source you could trust was Mary Ellen Burris.
She was vice president for consumer affairs at Wegmans, a lofty and well-earned title at what was becoming a grocery giant.
But high-ranking though she was, Burris was approachable, quick to explain everything and not afraid to bat back a silly question.
Burris, who is 92, retired in 2020 after working at Wegmans for 49 years.
She’s remained busy, and now she has acquired the title of philanthropist. She explains her generosity in a matter-of-fact matter, saying that she believes in giving while living. And she’s supporting causes she loves.
“The themes that have run through my life are listening, learning and teaching,” she says. “So my gifts reflect those themes.”
Her most recent gift is a $2 million pledge to the University of Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery and its campaign to make admission free for all. It followed the $3 million gift of Abby and Doug Bennett and the Sands Family Foundation. The goal for the Free For All Endowment is to raise $6 million.
Burris is doing what she’s always done, says Jo Natale, who worked with and for her for years.
“Her job at Wegmans was community,” Natale says. “And it was more than a job for her. She really did care, and she understood this community much better than I did, and I grew up here.”
Burris has also endowed a professorship at the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education and Human Development, the school from which she received a master’s degree. And the Mary Ellen Burris Auditorium at the UR Medicine’s UR Medicine Orthopaedics & Physical Performance carries her name in appreciation of a gift.
Burris is a native of Lost Creek, West Virginia, where her father was a school principal and her mother a librarian.
After graduating from West Virginia University with a degree in home economics, she taught in New Jersey and was also a cooperative extension agent there. After her husband, Alan, an inventor who died in 2013, took a job in Rochester, she moved here and began work at Cornell Cooperative Extension.
Later, she wrote Robert Wegman, the chairman of Wegmans, suggesting that the company set up a consumer affairs department. Wegman asked Burris to write a job description. She did. Wegman liked it.
And she was at the company from 1971 to 2020, retiring as vice president of consumer affairs.In her weekly columns in Wegmans print ads, Burris passed along nutrition and shopping advice and became known as a trusted source of information.
“For an awful lot of people, for an awful lot of years, she was Wegmans. She was the face of Wegmans,” says Frank Bilovsky, who covered the company as a business reporter for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
Burris was also a transformative force behind the scenes.
She encouraged the company to stock local fruits and vegetables. She initiated the Strive for Five campaign that stressed healthy eating. She made sure the company donated food to Foodlink so it could be distributed to pantries. She oversaw the staff responsible for food safety. And she watched over media relations.
“The great thing was the freedom that Wegmans gave me to do what I thought was the right thing,” Burris says.
Throughout her career, Burris emphasized listening. It was important to hear what customers had to say. It was important to listen to employees.
Now, Burris finds herself listening to the outpouring of praise on Facebook that has been triggered by her gift to the Memorial Art Gallery.
“Often you don’t know what people think of you,” she says, “but to see the kind of comments, it was touching.”
Remarkable Rochesterian
Given all she has done, let’s add the name of Mary Ellen Burris to the list of Remarkable Rochesterians that can be found at: https://data.democratandchronicle.com/remarkable-rochesterians/.
Mary Ellen Burris (1932 – ): The longtime vice president for consumer affairs at Wegmans Food Markets, Inc., she started there in 1971 and retired in 2020, During her career, she helped make the company accessible by writing a weekly column on nutrition and other subjects. She also oversaw product safety, championed the purchase of local fruits and vegetables, and, working with Foodlink, led the company to distribute food to pantries. A native of West Virginia and a graduate of the University of West Virginia, she was a teacher and a cooperative extension agent before joining Wegmans. The holder of a master’s degree from the University of Rochester’s Warner School of Education, she has endowed a professorship there, and she’s pledged $2 million to a campaign to establish free admission to the UR’s Memorial Art Gallery.
From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott writes Remarkable Rochester about who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Wegmans’ Mary Ellen Burris makes $2M gift to Rochester art gallery
Reporting by Jim Memmott, Special to Rochester Democrat and Chronicle / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
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