Remembering Arabia Mountain Trailblazer Tyrone Burkette

The popular Arabia Mountain ranger and trail guide was a renaissance man who was also a pastor, educator, college president and model train enthusiast.

The Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area has lost yet another one of its beloved long-term rangers and supporters. On December 28, Ranger Tyrone Burkette of Stonecrest, a fixture at the Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve (DAMNP) for more than 20 years, passed away after a year-long struggle with esophageal cancer. He was 79 years old and surrounded by friends and family at his home in Stonecrest. 

“He loved the outdoors,” said Betty Harris-Burkette, Tyrone’s wife of seven years and seven months. “Every place Tyrone has lived and every opportunity he got, he would find ways to be outdoors.” At their home in Stonecrest, Tyrone developed a trail that surrounded the entire property as well as plant beds and places to sit and meditate. “I loved looking out the windows and seeing him walking or sitting in stillness because I knew he was mediating and communing with God and God’s plant life,” said Betty. “Before designing our yard, he allowed it to speak to him.”

Burkette had a big impact on a lot of people in his 79 years, in particular in the NHA. In 2001, he started volunteering as a trail guide at DAMNP. Not long after this, he also began creating new soft trails and paths around the preserve. “We wanted to give people an option other than the PATH,” Burkette told Arabia Alliance in a 2023 Black History Month profile. “We wanted something that’s softer and better for hiking through the forest and backwoods. We have about 40 miles of soft trails now, and there are a lot of secret little spots out there that people don’t know about.” 

Many of the NHA’s most popular soft (or unpaved) trails can be traced back to Burkette and his volunteers, including the Forest Trail behind the Nature Center going down to Arabia Lake (Burkette’s first) and the Meadow Loop Trail by Vaughters’ Farm (a later addition). After a couple of years of this, the DeKalb Recreation, Parks and Cultural Affairs Department hired Burkette to do his work professionally as a park ranger. He worked eight years across the county before retiring from Recreation, Parks & Cultural Affairs—but he loved Arabia so much that he went straight back to leading hikes there three times a week.

DAMNP Manager Robby Astrove called Burkette his mentor and first bonded with the ranger over jazz music. “But it wasn’t just the music, more so it was the spirit of jazz and how the jazz tradition jived with being a Ranger and working in a wild and free place like Arabia Mountain,” recalled Astrove. Burkette taught Astrove the importance of improvisation, going with the flow, and a deep sense of listening as attributes of not just a great musician but also a great ranger. “Tyrone of Arabia never played the same phrase twice, he always kept it moving and grooving,” said Astrove. “He taught me how to listen to the rhythm of the Mountain and he shared the soul of the Preserve with all who joined him. Tyrone’s compositions and fingerprints will forever be seen and heard on the landscape.”

Born in Detroit in 1945, Burkette’s long life embraced many different roles before he became a park ranger. In 1967, he came to Atlanta to attend the Interdenominational Theological Center and became a pastor. He left Atlanta in 1970 only to return in 1999 to help develop charter schools as a regional director after having served as President of Barber-Scotia College in Concord, NC from 1988-89. Additionally, he was an avid cyclist (taking cross-country trips) and model train enthusiast, gladly showing off his model railroad to anyone curious. 

In 2024, the Arabia Alliance lost two other significant supporters: Dawn Stewart Massey, owner of the Lithonia Woman’s Club, and Ranger Mike Montgomery. “Ranger Tyrone Burkette’s contribution to the Arabia Mountain NHA is as vast as the very Piedmont forest he loved to hike in, through and around,” said Revonda Cosby, Executive Director of the Arabia Mountain NHA. “He was a giant among the pines, an avid educator, lover of plants and all things outdoors. He personally shaped so much of my thinking about equity, diversity and inclusion outdoors. Tyrone left his footprints and tracks throughout this region and we remain inspired by his zest for life and resiliency.”

In May 2022, Tyrone’s daughter Michelle interviewed him, asking the question: What do you want to be remembered for? Tyrone’s answer was: “I want to be remembered for the model train, flowers, my bicycle trips. When you see a garden, you think of me.”

A memorial service honoring Burkette’s life will be held on March 1 at 11AM at Crossroads Presbyterian Church, 5587 Redan Road in Stone Mountain. In lieu of flowers, the Burkette family asks people to make donations to the Tyrone Burkette Memorial Fund to benefit the Arabia Mountain NHA, which he loved.