Eunice native returns home with a story about success

Leroy “Pete” Burney left Eunice in 1984 for LSU in Baton Rouge and eventually a career at one of the nation’s most well-known corporations.
“I literally grew up two blocks from here,” Burney said at the Eunice Rotary Club meeting on Wednesday at Ruby’s Restaurant and Courtyard.
Burney, 52, said he grew up rich.
“For me it was being rich in spirit, rich in character, rich in the values that were instilled into me by my grandparents,” he said.
His father was an educator. The grandparents were a sawmill worker and domestic worker, and they raised him.
From ninth grade through his graduation from Eunice High School in 1982 and attending two years at LSUE, Burney worked at Ray’s Bakery. It was job he said where he learned about customer service.
Prodded by Rotarian Pat Dossman for the recipe for the baker’s doughnuts, Burney said, “I know exactly how many squirts of almond, how many squirts of butter, how many squirts of benzoate of soda go into those doughnuts, but I can’t tell you.”
After graduating from LSU in 1986, he served in the 82nd Airborne for nearly five years then was employed for 25 years at Hallmark Cards.
Army ROTC paid the bill through LSU and afterwards he headed into active service as a second lieutenant.
He ended up in the Airborne after seeking a way out of deployment to a base on the Canadian border.
“People often ask, ‘How do you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?’ People say, ‘How many night jumps did you have?’ And you say, ‘All of them.’ When your eyes are closed all jumps are night.”
Burney would be deployed to Honduras and Panama and narrowly missed Desert Shield and Desert Storm that routed Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.
In 1990, Burney left the Army as a captain and headed to Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, Missouri, where he retired as a senior corporate leader.
“The brand is much larger than the company itself,” he said. “Hallmark is about a $4 billion company. People are usually shocked to hear that. Not that it is tiny, but it is not a GE or Coca-Cola.”
The company started in 1910 is often viewed as a greeting card company, he said.
“While that is the large core business, the reality is Hallmark defines itself as a ‘connecting company.’ The vision of the company is to create a more emotionally connected world by making a genuine difference in every life every day.”
Company brands include Crayola, Keepsake Ornaments and Crown Media.
Burney came away from the 82nd Airborne and Hallmark Cards with some observations.
— Components of leadership are being decisive, trustworthy, compassionate and innovative.
“Under girding all that is communicating,” he said.
— “Wisdom is that what you get from a lifetime of listening, especially during times when you would have rather have spoke.”
— Relationships are everything.
— Be a problem-solver.
— Be a lifetime learner. “Keep sharpening your saw.”
— Four components at Hallmark are vision, strategy, plans and measures.
— Thinking you are doing the best that you can is signal of victimhood. “Am I doing all I can to make this sitaution better?”