Editing Raymond Burr (section)

===Philanthropy===
Burr was a well-known philanthropist.<ref name="Ona Hill"/>{{Rp|149}}<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5202/is_1989/ai_n19121827/pg_2 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120630031137/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5202/is_1989/ai_n19121827/pg_2 |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 30, 2012 |title=United Service Organizations |via=Find Articles |date=June 2, 2009 |access-date=March 30, 2010 |first=A. |last=Woodward }}</ref> He gave enormous sums of money, including his salaries from the Perry Mason movies, to charity. He was also known for sharing his wealth with friends. He sponsored 26 foster children through the [[Plan (aid organisation)|Foster Parents' Plan]] or [[Save the Children]], many with the greatest medical needs.<ref name="Ardmore" /> He gave money and some of his ''Perry Mason'' scripts to the [[McGeorge School of Law]] in [[Sacramento, California]].<ref name="shells">{{Cite web|url=http://shellmuseum.org/docs/articles/39/Shellnews_59.pdf|title=TSM 63285 0610 Newsletter_r|access-date=March 30, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101130095245/http://shellmuseum.org/docs/articles/39/Shellnews_59.pdf|archive-date=November 30, 2010}}</ref>
[[File:Bailey Matthews, Sanibel, Florida.JPG|thumb|A view of the [[Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum]] in [[Sanibel]], Florida, with the Raymond Burr Memorial Garden in the foreground, December 2011]]
Burr was an early supporter of the [[Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum]] in [[Sanibel, Florida]], raising funds and chairing its first capital campaign.<ref name="Raymond Burr Memorial Garden"/> He also donated to the museum a large collection of Fijian cowries and cones from his island in Fiji.<ref name="Betty Lowry">{{cite web|url=http://www.goodmoney.com/sanibel.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19981201232455/http://goodmoney.com/sanibel.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 1, 1998|title=Sanibel&nbsp;– It Rhymes With Shell|last=Lowry|first=Betty|year=1998|website=Ecotravel|publisher=Good Money|access-date=May 18, 2016}}</ref>

In 1993, [[Sonoma State University]] awarded Burr an honorary doctorate.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://sonoma.edu/uaffairs/notables/entertainment.html |title=Entertainment |publisher=Sonoma.edu |access-date=March 30, 2010}}</ref> He supported medical and educational institutions in Denver, and in 1993, the [[University of Colorado]] awarded him an honorary doctorate for his acting work.<ref name="Starr"/>{{Rp|197–98}} Burr also founded and financed the American Fijian Foundation that funded academic research, including efforts to develop a dictionary of the language.<ref>Albert J. Schütz and Tevita Nawadra, "A Refutation of the Notion 'Passive' in Fijian", ''Oceanic Linguistics'', vol. 11, no. 2, winter 1972, 107; Albert J. Schutz, "The Forerunners of the Fijian Dictionary", ''Journal of the Polynesian Society'', vol. 83, no. 4, December 1974, 443</ref>

Burr made repeated trips on behalf of the [[United Service Organizations]] (USO). He toured both [[Korea]] and [[Vietnam]] during wartime and once spent six months touring Korea, Japan, and the [[Philippines]]. He sometimes organized his own troupe and toured bases both in the U.S. and overseas, often small installations that the USO did not serve, like one tour of [[Greenland]], [[Baffin Island]], Newfoundland and Labrador.<ref name="Starr"/>{{Rp|53–57}} Returning from Vietnam in 1965, he made a speaking tour of the U.S. to advocate an intensified war effort. As the war became more controversial, he modified his tone, called for more attention to the sacrifice of the troops, and said, "My only position on the war is that I wish it were over." In October 1967, NBC aired ''Raymond Burr Visits Vietnam'', a documentary of one of his visits. The reception was mixed. "The impressions he came up with are neither weighty nor particularly revealing", wrote the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]''; the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' said Burr's questions were "intelligent and elicited some interesting replies".<ref name="Starr"/>{{Rp|160–61}}

Burr had a reputation in Hollywood as a thoughtful, generous man years before much of his more-visible philanthropic work. In 1960, Ray Collins, who portrayed Lt. Arthur Tragg on the original ''Perry Mason'' series, and who was by that time often ill and unable to remember all the lines he was supposed to speak, stated, "There is nothing but kindness from our star, Ray Burr. Part of his life is dedicated to us, and that's no bull. If there's anything the matter with any of us, he comes around before anyone else and does what he can to help. He's a great star—in the old tradition."<ref>Hollywood column by Rick Du Brow for United Press International, appearing in the State Times Advocate of Baton Rouge LA, July 19, 1960, p. 5</ref>