Dr John R and Pat Burg

Dr. John R. Burg was born in Akron, Ohio. His family valued education and hard work, and John was a high achiever who made his family proud. He graduated from Ohio University with three majors, earned a medical degree from Ohio State University, and finished cardiology training at University of Oregon in Portland.

Military service brought him to Great Falls as a flight surgeon where he was thrilled to ride “shotgun” with pilots who broke sound barriers. He and his first wife, Barbara, moved to Billings in 1973 where he began his cardiology practice at Deaconess Hospital (now Billings Clinic). He quickly gained a reputation as a skilled, dependable, caring physician, mentor and leader. Though he received many medical achievement awards in his 33 years of practice, the most significant was the naming of the John R. Burg MD Cardiac Center at Billings Clinic.

After Barbara passed in 2002, John met Patricia (Pat), who had also recently lost her first husband. Patricia moved to Billings in 1989 and was a teacher at Castle Rock. Pat and John married in 2006 and shared their hobbies of music, arts, and adventure in the great outdoors. They loved their home atop the rims and enjoyed hosting parties and housing visiting artists.

John and Pat believed in giving back to their community. John passed in May of 2024 and Pat continued his legacy of giving back to education by establishing the Dr John R. Burg Endowed Scholarship. The scholarship will help students from Montana in the College of Education. The first scholarship will be awarded in the 2025-2026 Academic Year.