Support for Burnie Rossum's Family

Beloved husband, father, brother, and teammate Burnie Rossum lost his years-long battle with cancer in early September 2024. He was 50 years old. We are reaching out to friends and the community to generate support for the loving family he leaves behind: wife Jen and children Jake, Bella, and Sam.

Many of us know Burnie as a ballplayer from his many years with the Angels, Cubs, and Pirates. Over the last eleven years of his baseball career -- as far back as stats are available -- he compiled a 79-10 record as a pitcher, finishing with 372 K's and a 3.04 ERA over 660 innings. Most of those innings he was just half of an all-Rossum battery, with his brother Ben behind the plate.

The stats are nice, of course, and worthy of the front-line starter he was, but they are hardly the measure of the man. He was kind, welcoming, and ready with a laugh, even as the cancer limited his ability to get out and about in recent months. In the last, most difficult phase of his illness, his thoughts were for Jen and their kids, including a concern that the costs of his care were impacting their futures.

We hope you will join the family at Burnie's memorial service on October 12 (details below), that you leave your own memories of Burn in the space below for the family to cherish, and that you will consider making a financial contribution to help support the family. Everything raised here will go towards Jack, Bella, and Sam's education, helping to offset the financial gap caused by losing the family's primary earner.

Thank you for being part of Burnie's life, for reading this testimonial, and in advance for anything you can do to help Jen, Jack, Bella, and Sam at this difficult time.