Robert Adams Burr of Coral Gables, FL

My name is Robert Adams Burr. I am a writer, photographer, promoter, historian, publisher and connoisseur of fine rums.

History

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I am the seventh generation of my family to call Florida home. My great-great-great grandfather, along with four generations of our family moved to Florida in 1876 from Georgetown, where he was a commissioner of Washington D.C. Our family first arrived in Virginia before 1650. My ancestors have played prominent roles as colonial governors and revolution war heroes. As pioneers of Florida, they've served at the highest levels of county government and in state government in critical roles for very long periods.

I was born in Fort Benning, Georgia in late 1955 while my father was in the army. My family moved back to Miami before I was one year old. I married my high school sweet-hart, Robin. We went to the prom together in 1973. Although I scored among the top one percent of my class, I never graduated from high school. Aside from a few classes at Miami-Dade College (cinematic appreciation was a gas) I have no formal education.

Work

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I've enjoyed participating in many leading-edge technologies, but never held a job working for someone else. I've been a photographer, a cinematographer, a videographer and a recording engineer and record producer. I was among the first to embrace digital recording, owned a record company, created one of the first Compact Discs with JVC, created some of the first CD-ROMs with Nimbus, developed and published interactive edu-tainment software titles, created some of the first Photo CDs with Kodak and the first MPEG-1 video CDs with Denon. My wife and I published Fisheye View, a magazine about scuba diving for more than six years, then sold it to Rodale Press. I wrote a book about building web servers for John Wiley and Sons Computer Publications and I have created more than 300 web sites. My clients have included the largest fortune 50 companies in Japan and the United States, as well thousands of smaller companies around the world. I have traveled extensively and enjoy world cultures and history.

Community

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In my community of Coral Gables, Florida, I am a leader of various civic organizations, historical societies, community service groups, business enterprises and volunteer organizations. I spend much of my time endeavoring to make my city a better place to live and work. I enjoy leading groups of friends and associates on special adventures around the world and around town. We publish the Pedestrian Pocket Guide to Coral Gables quarterly and I have more than 3,000 readers on my weekly e-mail list of cultural events, "Friday In Coral Gables." Among other publications, we produce a magazine in the Turks and Caicos Islands for the sport-fishing industry.

Interests

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I enjoy the confluence of history, geography, culture and food. I promote my Redland Riot Fruity Tropical History Tour in the Winter and Spring months, as well as my Gables Wine Walk, Gables Pub Crawl, Gables Dine-Around, Gallery Stroll and Theatre Treat pedestrian adventures locally. I also organize the annual Arch Creek Pioneer Family BBQ event, a re-creation of a century old tradition in my family. I am an active member of the Cellar Club, our local wine appreciation society. I also actively promote greater appreciation of the finest rums in the world, which I have labeled the "Gifted Rums" as a group. These are rare and exceptional rums from around the world. Every great rum has a great story behind it.

I have contributed several articles to Wikipedia recently and hope to add more along the way on topics that are of interest to me and of which I have some understanding and knowledge.

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