​Dr. Nelson R. "Nellie" Burr died January 10, 1994. As a graduate of Hartford H.S. in Connecticut, he attended Princeton, University where he was Phi Beta Kappa and earned a degree in history. He was the class historian of the class of 1927. He then earned an M.A. in history at Princeton Graduate School and taught English history for several years at New York University. In 1934, he returned to Princeton to earn a Ph.D. in history. His thesis was entitled "Education in N.J." and published in 1942 by the Princeton University Press.

That same year, he joined the staff of the Library of Congress in Washington, working in its Office of Exhibits. Among his voluminous publications are The Story of the Episcopal Church in the United States (1936), , The story of a country parish : a history of Saint Andrews, North Bloomfield, Conn. : formerly Saint Andrews, Simsbury (1940), A Critical Bibliography of Religion in America (1961), First American diocese: Connecticut, its origin, its growth, its work (1970), Mission: 1821-1971. An essay to commemorate the sesquicentennial of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church of the United States (1971), United States Senator James Dixon, 1814-1873 : Episcopalian anti-slavery statesman (1981), and many others. 

Retiring in 1968, he moved to West Hartford, becoming a trustee of the Noah Webster Foundation and town historian, and writing articles for historical magazines on Connecticut history. He was an active member of the Church Historical Society and its successor, the Historical Society of the Episcopal Church, serving on its board. He was one of the founding members of the National Episcopal Historians and Archivists in 1961.

"Nellie" was a lifelong bachelor and left no immediate survivors.