Longtime Arlington Hts. insurance executive dies

Six weeks to the day after Jim Seymour, a record-setting wide receiver and football All-American at the University of Notre Dame passed away, his business partner from Arlington Heights died of heart failure.

James Burda, who ran BGS Insurance with Seymour for more than 35 years, including more than 20 in Arlington Heights, died on Tuesday. He was 66.

“They were very close,” says Debbie Exton, of BGS Insurance. “They’ve been partners since 1974.”

A memorial service was held just last week on the campus of Notre Dame for Seymour, who had been a favorite target of quarterback Terry Hanratty, and helped the Irish win the 1966 national championship. Mr. Burda was too ill to attend.

The two met in 1970, when Seymour came to Chicago to play for the Bears. Mr. Burda, who played on the state championship football team for Weber High School in Chicago and for one year with the University of Michigan, called to sell him insurance.

That visit at Seymour’s Deerfield home turned into a lifelong friendship and business partnership. When Seymour left the Bears and walked away from the Chicago Fire in the World Football League, Mr. Burda asked him to join a new agency he was starting.

Mr. Burda brought his insurance background to the business. He had spent nearly 10 years selling Allstate Insurance before forming the independent agency.

“Seymour had to learn the insurance business,” says Judy Burda, Mr. Burda’s wife. “But the two were good friends. They had football in common.”

In the insurance and business community, Mr. Burda was the outside salesman, while Seymour handled more of technical work.

In an interview last month with the Daily Herald, shortly after Seymour’s passing, Mr. Burda said they never tried to build on Seymour’s football legacy.

“I’d say 99 percent of the people we wrote insurance for never knew what a football hero he was,” Mr. Burda said. “They didn’t recognize his name, and he didn’t talk about it.”

Office colleagues say both men kept their loyalties in check, except when the two universities played each other.

“Most of the time, (Seymour) kept his Notre Dame loyalties pretty controlled,” Exton added, “except when they played Michigan. Then things began to happen around the office.”

She adds that the sons of Mr. Burda and Mr. Seymour now are carrying on the business. Brian Burda and Todd Seymour follow in their fathers’ footsteps of selling all kinds of insurance and representing different carriers.

Besides his wife and son, Mr. Burda is survived by a daughter, Juli, as well as two grandchildren.

Visitation takes place from 3-9 p.m. Friday at Cumberland Chapels, 8300 W. Lawrence Ave. in Norridge, before a 10:30 a.m. Saturday funeral Mass at St. Cyprian Church, 2601 N. Clinton St. in River Grove.