Animation Industry Honors Adam Burke

Northbay Health Foundation Board Member Adam Burke, who lost his battle with lung cancer Oct. 8, 2018, will be honored with the June Foray Award at the 46th Annual Annie Awards ceremony Feb. 2 at University of California, Los Angeles.

The prestigious award recognizes Adam's significant and benevolent impact on the art and the industry of animation.

Adam was an illustrator for Pixar Films and worked on a number of classic Pixar films including, Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Cars, WALL-E, Toy Story 3, Up and most recently Incredibles 2.

Adam's wife, Kim, a Northbay Guild volunteer, and his sons Aiden and Zach will accept the award on his behalf. The award is named after June Foray, a voice actress who was best note for the voices of such animated characters as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Lucifer from Disney's Cinderella and Cindy Lou Who, from the classic, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." She was one of the early members of the ASIFA-Hollywood, a society devoted to promoting and encouraging animation and is credited with the establishment of the Annie Awards.

Adam got his start in animation in the 1990s, working with industry icons Don Bluth, on Thumbelina and A Troll in Central Park; with Richard Rich, on The Swan Princess and its sequels; and for Warner Bros. on Space Jam. He also did character animation on several DreamWorks features, including Spirit in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Miguel in The Road to El Dorado.

When not illustrating, he coordinated special visits and screenings for patients of Children's Hospital with each film's release.

As a Foundation board member, he served as Solano Wine & Food Jubilee Silent Auction chair for 2018, and donated several private Pixar studio tours to the Live Auction at Open That Bottle Night, a fundraising event for Northbay Hospice & Bereavement.

The awards ceremony will be live streamed on Feb. 2 and can be viewed at https://annieawards.org. The ceremony begins at 7 p.m.