BURGER CHEF

We mourn the passing of a former Albionite, Robert Bieske of Spring Arbor, who died on June 30 at the age of 85. Bob graduated from Washington Gardner High School in 1942, and served as a supervisor at the Albion Malleable Iron Company until blindness forced him to leave in the early 1960s. He later earned a Bachelor‘s degree at Spring Arbor College in 1974. I was in college there then and remember Bob had the whole campus sidewalk routes memorized and had no problem going from building to building with his white cane. Bob subsequently earned a Master‘s Degree from Michigan State University in Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling and worked for the State of Michigan in that field until his retirement.

A timely reminder: If your Albion High School class is having a reunion this summer, be sure and have copies of my books "Growing Up in Albion or "Albion in Review at your event as door prizes. These are available for sale at the Albion Chamber of Commerce next to Citizen‘s Bank.

I read that someone is going to open up a coffee shop in the old Little Caesar‘s Pizza building at 215 E. Michigan Avenue this fall. For those of us who grew up in Albion in the 1960s, however, we remember it as the location of Burger Chef hamburgers. Burger Chef was erected in the spring of 1967 on the site of an old residence that was demolished. It was just down the street from Washington Gardner Jr. High School (the Senior High had moved to their new school in January, 1967).

The hamburgers were around 20 cents each to start with. I remember they put a plastic cover with a decorative star on the big sign out front, to cover up the original 15 cents price. Burger Chef was a great "hang out place. Teen drivers would use the parking lot as a "turn around when cruising, until it was stopped by blocking off the east entrance to Michigan Avenue.

From our Historical Notebook this week we present a photograph of Burger Chef taken during its construction on March 25, 1967. How many of our readers remember Burger Chef?

	Frank Passic — Albion Historian An Albion native and 1971 graduate of Albion High School, Frank Passic has been researching and writing Albion history since 1976. He is the creator of the Albion Historical Notebook, with hundreds of articles appearing weekly in the Morning Star and The Recorder. Frank maintains an extensive personal archive including Riverside Cemetery records, family surname files, genealogies, photographs, city directories, and high school yearbooks. Support his 2026 research at the Historic Albion Michigan Facebook page. Historical Notebook \| From the Archives \| Subject List \| 100 Years Ago \| Alphabetical Index \| Frank Passic Home Page \| Albion History Books \| Contact Frank
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