Todd Eric Burke

PORTLAND – Todd Eric Burke, 61, passed away on Feb. 24, 2021 having lived through many incidents likely to cause death and seemed invincible…until he wasn’t. Todd lived his own life, a life judged by many to be hard throughout, starting out with a black eye and bump on his head so severe from the forceps the hospital photographer suggested no baby photo. He developed a cross-eyed condition requiring wearing a patch over one eye, which didn’t help his depth perception that he never really regained. He was on his own from a young age for various reasons and often made the “wrong” choices, ending up with a lifelong struggle with alcohol.

But, somewhere along the way he had the time to teach himself to be an amazing guitar player, surprising a myriad number of people looking on his homeless exterior and being fascinated by the accomplished artist within. He also was well read, having no place to call home towards the end of his life, but always carrying around books like a biography of Abraham Lincoln or the history of some WW II battle. He would say “I only have two brain cells left and they are constantly arguing with each other” yet he could speak intelligently on just about any subject. A diagnosis of mental illness and substance abuse disorder didn’t prevent Todd from being the guy you would remember as being the funniest person you met in your life, the best story teller you could recall or the guy with five dollars to his name who would give all of it to another struggling person to keep them going for another day.

In the end, he died of an overdose, a miscalculation from someone whose intelligence eventually lost to the chance percentage of fentanyl. We would all wish we could have kept him from his choices, but he was someone who lived his life on the outside of our norms, sometimes wishing he could change but never enough to change, leaving behind many people who loved him for who he was, not the choices he made.

Todd is survived by his brother, Scott Burke and his wife Becky of Windham and his sister, Heather Carson and her husband John of Hallowell.

The family will have a private celebration in the future.

Arrangements entrusted to Hobbs Funeral Home, South Portland. Online condolences may be expressed at http://www.hobbsfuneralhome.com.

We would love all those who knew Todd to honor him by donating to Milestone Recovery, Portland, Maine.


Share your condolences, kind words and remembrances below. You must be logged into the website to comment. Subscribers, please login. Not a subscriber? Register to comment for free or subscribe to support our work.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.