Richard R. Burns Jr. of Malden, a funeral director who was the third generation of his family to own the E. E. Burns & Son Funeral Home, died Sunday, November 8, 2026. He was 77 and had lived in Malden all his life. Most people called him Rick.
He was born March 28, 1949, to Richard R. Burns Sr. and Florence (Carr) Burns. He graduated from Malden Catholic in 1967 and from Norwich University in 1972, and his family says he was proud of both classes.
He then went into the family business. As a funeral director he looked after hundreds of Malden families at the hardest point in their lives, work his family says he carried out with compassion and a generous heart.
Outside the funeral home he volunteered. He was active in the Rotary Club, the Bayrd Foundation and the Pine Banks Park Foundation, and his family says he put in countless hours for the organizations and people of a city he was proud to call home.
Those who knew him, the family says, will remember the humor first: a quick wit, an ability to get a room laughing, and a knack for making people feel welcome and at ease even on a hard day.
Retirement gave him more time with his family. He especially liked traveling to Atlanta to see his granddaughter, Lucy, and his family counts those visits among his happiest times.
He leaves his wife, Priscilla (Doss) Burns; two daughters, Maura Carr Burns and her partner, Kelly Sherin, and Elizabeth Burns Carter and her partner, Cliff Carter; his granddaughter, Lucy Carter; and many cousins, nieces and friends. His sisters, Nancy Burns Owens and Ellen Burns Peterson, died before him.
The funeral service is Thursday, November 12, at 10 a.m. at the Weir MacCuish Funeral Home, 144 Salem Street, Malden. Burial will follow in Holy Cross Cemetery, Malden.
The family suggests memorial donations to the Malden Warming Center, 529 Eastern Avenue, Malden, MA 02148.
Compiled from information published by Weir-MacCuish Golden Rule Funeral Home, 144 Salem Street, Malden. Photograph courtesy of the family via Weir-MacCuish. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.
