Not many people can say they have met a United States president, let alone had a conversation with one. Longtime Hermiston leader Joseph “Joe” Burns, however, met and had conversations with several during his life.

Burns passed away Thursday at the age of 90 in his home in Hermiston after serving the Hermiston community in a variety of capacities since he arrived in 1946. Burns, who also was a B-24 bomber pilot during World War II, had owned and operated Burns Mortuary in Condon, Oregon, with his brother, Charles, before coming to Hermiston. He moved to the region to take over Prann Mortuary in Hermiston, which he and his brother renamed Burns Mortuary.

Since that time, Burns served as a part of many civic and service groups, as chairman for a number of boards, was a member of the Hermiston City Council and was one of a small collection of prominent community members to start the Hermiston Development Corporation, for which he was president for 29 years. In his tenure with that organization, the region added nearly 6,000 jobs.

Burns’ contributions to the region got him noticed by not only state officials, who invited him to represent Umatilla, Morrow, Gilliam, Wheeler and Grant counties during a special session for the Oregon State Legislature in 1971, but he also became familiar to United States presidents, as well.

Burns’ son, Paul Burns, said his father was known as the “go to” person if U.S. presidents were looking for someone to drum up the support and votes of constituents in the region. Through the years, Joe Burns met presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

“He was quite the guy,” Paul Burns said. “He was really something.”

Paul Burns said that when Reagan was inaugurated, his father was personally invited to the ceremony. On another occasion, he met and shook hands with Reagan at a lunch in Washington, D.C.

He said his father was also part of a contingent of people who picked up either Nixon or Ford from the airport in a limousine when they arrived in Pendleton for an event at Happy Canyon.

“Dad was getting into the limousine when the president said, ‘Joe, you sit here by me,’ ” Paul Burns said. “He got to sit next to the president and talk with him about things that were happening in the region. He was tickled to death about that.”

Former City Manager Tom Harper, who is now 92, recalls that when he first came to Hermiston in the early 1960s, it was obvious Burns was the go-to person for a lot of things in town. Harper worked with Burns on a variety of projects that involved the city and the growth of Hermiston.

“When I first came here, there were hardly any streets paved here,” he said. “At that time, in 1961, the population of Hermiston was around 4,000. He helped develop the community so people wanted to live here.”

Other friends and colleagues also mentioned Burns’ drive to make the community a better place. Hermiston attorney and former City Councilman George Anderson, who is also a member of the Hermiston Development Corporation, said he came to know Burns through Rotary and then through various other committees and organizations.

Anderson said, if it wasn’t for Burns, Hermiston would be a very different place in which to live.

“He was involved in all sorts of things,” he said.

Anderson said while Burns served as the Hermiston Development Corporation president for 29 years, he and the other members were instrumental in getting the Marlette Mobile Home Manufacturing Company to come to Hermiston, which was a “big boom” to the area. He and his core group of peers, including Harper and various others, were also a crucial part in getting Walmart to come to Hermiston, which was the company’s first store in the Pacific Northwest. The store was then followed years later by the distribution center, which currently supports more than 800 jobs for the region.

Anderson said that as far back as the early 1980s Burns and his fellow group of leaders were also working to move the fairgrounds to a then 75-acre parcel of property near the Hermiston Airport. That concept has become a reality with the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center currently under construction, he said.

“He had that vision more than 30 years ago,” Anderson said.

Anderson said Burns’ passion for doing great things was contagious, and it has also inspired him to get involved.

“I’ve known one great man in my time, and it is Joe Burns,” he said.

Burns was also recognized by the community through the years.

In 1962, Burns was named Education Man of the Year by the Education Association of Hermiston. In 1986, he was honored with the title of Volunteer of the Year for the state of Oregon. Then later, he was named Hermiston Man of the Year in 1988.

Hermiston Mayor Dave Drotzmann said Burns’ efforts, even to this day, continue to have an impact on the local community and his own leadership in the city.

“I consider Joe one of the fathers of this community,” Drotzmann said. “Some of us civic leaders have continued to support the growth of this community. Without his leadership, I’m not sure where Hermiston would be today.”

Drotzmann said Burns was a very engaging, outgoing person who always had a smile on his face and would always shake people’s hands and ask how they were doing.

“He will be a tough one to replace,” he said. “He is the reason why Hermiston has continued to be as successful as they are.”

Drotzmann said city staff is currently drafting a proclamation to honor Burns at the suggestion of Councilman Manuel Gutierrez. During Monday night’s council meeting, Gutierrez also suggested staff should honor Burns by asking the governor’s office if the city could fly the flag at half staff.

“The council is all very supportive of that,” Drotzmann said.

A recitation of the rosary for Burns will take place at 7 p.m. tonight at the Burns Mortuary chapel in Hermiston.

A mass of Christian burial will be at 1 p.m. Thursday at Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church in Hermiston. A burial with military honors will then follow at the Hermiston Cemetery.

To sign the condolence book, people can visit burnsmortuaryhermiston.com.