SAN FRANCISCO—On Sunday, September 7, 2025, John Burton died from a fall at a San Francisco hospice at 92.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio on December 15, 1932, as John Lowell Burton, he was raised in San Francisco, graduating from Abraham Lincoln High School in 1950.
Burton earned Bachelor of Arts in Social Science at San Francisco State University in 1954, enlisting in the United States Army after graduation, serving from 1954-1956. Afterwards, he earned his Juris Doctor from University of San Francisco School of Law in 1960.
In 1961, California Bar admitted Burton, working as a San Francisco attorney and lobbyist for Pacific Gas and Electric Company.
In 1964, California State Assembly voted Burton to succeed brother Phillip Burton in 1974. After rehab from his drug addiction, he practiced private law for six years.
He returned to the Assembly twice in 1988 and 1990 – 1996, then was elected to California State Senate until 2004 as the 47th president pro tempore to California State Senate from 1998 – 2004. He expanded Cal Grant scholarships.
He was the chair of the Democratic Party from 1973 -1974 and Sunday, April 26, 2009 – May 2017; Eric Bauman succeeded him.
After the 1970 census, the Burton brothers were to redraw the congressional districts in California. When Representative William S. Maillard resigned, Burton elected in as a representative in 1974, where he supported civil rights and environmental protection.
He married twice to daughter of Jack Hall, Michele Hall, a Hawaiian trade unionist and healthcare consultant and Sharon Bain which dissolved. The first marriage brought in a daughter, Kimiko Burton in the 1970s, a San Francisco Public Defender from 2001 -2003 and California State Personnel Board member from 2012- June 2025.
He spearheaded Nancy Pelosi’s first congressional campaign. London Breed appointed Burton to the San Francisco Port Commission Thursday, October 22, 2020. He created the San Francisco Port Commission in 1968.
