As Seon Chun-Burbank shares how she and her husband gave up their dream of sailing the world so they could put 27 kindergartners through college, threads emerge that reveal how they came to such a bold decision.
Chun-Burbank, a professor at Vanguard University, grew up one of five children in Seoul, South Korea. It was a time when struggling families such as hers spent what little money they had educating boys.
Growing up in Huntington Beach, Calif., her husband, lawyer Marty Burbank, had a far different life growing up with two sisters.
Yet both their journeys help explain why this couple will end up giving an estimated $1.1 million to help an Anaheim classroom of strangers graduate from college.
In some respects, their decision seems simple. With tears in his eyes, Burbank says, “When these kids go home, their parents struggle to pay for food. We asked ourselves, ‘What can we do to solve that?’ ”
But behind their decision are significant events, difficult decisions and strong values.
Flipping through a flurry of smartphone photos of sailing trips, Burbank barely pauses over one that jumps out. It is black and white and grainy. The old newspaper photograph shows a little boy handing over his piggy bank to the president of the Westchester Jaycees to help feed the hungry.
Below the photo, the caption identifies the boy: Marty Burbank.
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During an afternoon at the couple’s ranch-style home on a cul-de-sac of a modest Fullerton, Calif., neighborhood, the professor and the elder law attorney talk about love, the mystery of faith and the kids they call their “spiritual children.”
Chun-Burbank’s father had to quit elementary school to work full time. Her mother had to give up formal education in middle school.
Her father supported his family working as a bricklayer. Chun-Burbank was a star student. She had been admitted to Ewha Womans University in Seoul, akin to being admitted to Harvard.
But with five children, there wasn’t enough money for Chun-Burbank to go to college. The family reached out to an aunt and uncle in Mexico City. Could they help? Her aunt and uncle agreed to pitch in.
After earning her bachelor’s degree, Chun-Burbank taught in Singapore. But she wanted to go deeper into education, to mentor others in teaching young children. She scrimped and saved to reach her goal. Yet when she heard about a mission in Indonesia that needed $600 for a roof, she paid the entire bill.
She was admitted to the University of Northern Iowa, where she earned her master’s and then her doctorate. Later, she received a master’s in public administration from Cal State Fullerton.
Her first job in the U.S. was in Juneau, Alaska, at the University of Alaska Southeast. There, she built statewide partnerships with school districts, community organizations and colleges.
After Juneau, Chun-Burbank taught at Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, where she served as a consultant for the Center for Constructivist Education in Seoul. Along the way, Chun-Burbank joined an outdoor club that offered everything from hiking to sailing.
On May 22, 2006, she drove along Bayshore Drive in Newport Beach, parking near the Galley Restaurant and climbing aboard a rental Hunter 36-foot sailboat. The skipper was a stranger. His name: Marty Burbank.
Burbank grins recalling that day. “Seon followed me around the boat.”
The 44-year-old professor laughs. “No, no, he followed me around.”
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The son of a salesman, Burbank fell in love with the ocean as a teenager. A Sea Scout, he learned to sail small boats in Long Beach’s Alamitos Bay. By the time he graduated from Marina High School, he shared the dream of many young watermen — he was determined to become a Navy SEAL.
Burbank enlisted and made the cut for SEAL training. But a broken leg dashed his dreams. Still, Burbank found adventure. He served in the Navy for 12 years, mostly as a medical deep sea diver working with Navy SEALs.
Over time, Burbank realized he couldn’t be a deep sea diver all his life and turned toward law. He earned his bachelor’s degree at State University of New York, a law degree from Thomas Jefferson School of Law and a master’s in tax law from Chapman University’s law school.
Now 52, Burbank never lost his love for sailing. In 1983, Burbank crewed on the boat that won the Newport to Ensenada yacht race and held the record for 17 years. In 1997, he sailed his 33-foot boat from Hawaii to California; that trip took four weeks. In 2005, he sailed from Hawaii to Santa Barbara aboard a $3.5 million, carbon fiber, Transpacific Yacht Race boat.
Four months after the couple’s first sail, Burbank proposed marriage on a voyage to Catalina Island. Today, the couple continues to rent boats and sail. But the world of wind and water is only a building block in a relationship built on love and grace.
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Eight years ago, Burbank rode his BMW motorcycle along Pacific Coast Highway and headed north toward Long Beach. There was a crash. Burbank spent the next four months in a wheelchair.
A friend suggested Burbank join the Roosters Foundation, an Orange County-based nonprofit that “stands for friendship, fellowship charity and good times.” Its charities range from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tustin to Laura’s House, an organization that helps battered women.
Being a member of Roosters, Burbank says, “is one of the proudest things in my life.”
Chun-Burbank adds, “I’ve learned a lot from my husband about giving.”
Through Eastside Christian Church in Fullerton, the couple embraced the congregation’s mission of community service.
At church, Burbank met Tessa Ashton, a kindergarten teacher at Rio Vista Elementary School in Anaheim. She mentioned that most of her students are from struggling families. “If you need anything for this classroom,” Burbank told the teacher, “let me know and I’ll help.”
When Burbank saw a bargain-priced pallet of Clif Bars, he bought it and donated it to the kids. When he spotted a pallet of notebooks, he gave it to the classroom. Then he noticed university flags in the kindergarten.
The plan was to get the children used to the idea of going to college. But Burbank knew in his bones that there was no way most of the kids could ever afford higher education.
The lawyer considered his hobbies, which include flying and sailing. He’d already pretty much given up the idea of buying a small plane. Next, he considered his plans to buy a sailboat. “I realized that maintaining a boat for the next 16 years was about the same as getting those kids through college.”
Burbank shared with his wife the idea of setting aside the sailboat and instead putting the classroom through college. “I was speechless,” Chun-Burbank recalls. “I said, ‘God will bless you.’ ”
Chun-Burbank took stock. Instead of getting paid back, her aunt and uncle told her to pay it forward. She also considered the possibility that the kindergartners’ needs crossing her path was the reason that God had not given the couple their own biological child.
Wiping away tears, Chun-Burbank smiles. “Now I have 27 children.”
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