The man who first called on us to “Be Legendary Now” on May 19th, 2023, after surviving his first surgery, took his last breath after a courageous battle on January 10th. 2025. He was indeed legendary himself! He joins his beloved parents Shirley and Vonell Burton. He will be watching over his wife, Zulma Zabala, his son Malcolm Burton; Brother Derrick Burton (Alisa Burton), sister Monica Hooker (Brian Hooker); his sisters via wife Zarala and Sandra and his vast number of other family members, dear friends, community partners and mentees.
Reggie loved and cared for his beloved wife for 38 years! Together they nurtured and loved, their greatest accomplishment and joy Malcolm their son. Malcolm and Zulma recent conversation during this painful loss, describe him as not just a husband and father but their very best friend. Reg was fervent in the way he loved them, committed to their every need and fearlessly protected them. Reggie and son collaborated in business and community service together, they represented a powerful duo many could only dream of. They toured cities every summer to experience and enjoy their love of music! Father and son relationship was strong and loving, each revering each other consistently. Reggie and Wife served as a model of love, coining their relationship as one of Eternal GrowingLove; they counseled couples, individuals to remain committed to love on behalf of building beautiful loving communities. To watch Zulma and Sekou was to witness true love and commitment! The rest of his family and friends from south to west, to Midwest and East Coast all consider him as one of the greatest men they could ever be most proud of cherishing. One cousin describes that the love he always displayed passionately was one of TOGETHERNESS!
Reginald served this country via the Navy for a decade! Immediately after bootcamp, Reggie did all he could to train service in healthcare, his first stint in emergency services. In fact, while he was a Navy man, he served almost his entire military career with the Marines as a medic/corpsman. He moved on to gain an education in Nuclear Medicine, and became a specialist in the field serving as lead tech until his last day at work November 14th, 2024. In that trajectory he served in various hospitals Bethesda Medical Center, Camp Pendleton, Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, Morristown Medical Center and ultimately University Hospitals. Reggie’s greatest achievement in the military was to become a Nuclear Medicine Specialist, when he first entered is first science classroom, he realized immediately he was one of two Black students in the class, and other BIPOC members included one Philipino American, one Native American Woman and one Latino american student. All had served a minimum of 4 years in the military, while the rest of the class members had just newly joined the military. The 5 forged ahead despite the discrepancies and lack of equity to become the top 5 students in class never scoring below 90 percentile in courses. Courses that by the way were offered in tandem with the coveted George Washington University.
In his first 5 years of service at University Hospitals he served in various capacities. He began at UH Main campus, eagerly partnered with leadership on various research projects, offering his knowledge as a nuclear medicine technologist. He led and helped with the establishment of the operations of the Nuclear Medicine services in Beechwood before the latest additions of the Ahuja Medical Center site. He took his leadership to Parma General Hospital where he not only served as a lead tech for the Nuclear Medicine Department, but he led and advocated for a state-of the art community nuclear medicine department including PET. He mentored and supported new staff, including Temp staff and students in training from Tri-C. Finally, Reg served as Parma Hospital Radiation Safety Officer for over a decade. Special shout out for never having a failing inspection under his leadership in his years of service. Reg was at Parma for 23 years; Parma became part of the UH system during his last 10 years of service.
Reggie aka Sekou is also known for his passion for educating people on Civil Rights and his strong commitment in encouraging people to become critical thinkers and achieve their highest goals. None was clearer of this commitment than those who saw him in action in his community work! He founded along with his wife The Community Collective, which was responsible for supporting and/or leading many rites of passage experiences at Camp Mueller.As a consultant and advisor he guided many local leaders. He was fervently committed to making sure adults supported youth and communities. Eventually his main focus became supporting his son’s founded organization My Brother, My sister Global. The youth organization founded by Malcolm, valued Sekous’ role as a facilitator of history and positive life’s lessons youth could actually relate to and trust! Many of the youth today consider him a Father Figure, hence why many also call him Pops or Baba (Father)! They describe him as kind, supportive, encouraging and a solid voice of reason. His wisdom has become a mantra for many, who remind themselves to answer his call of action to be legendary now!
Reggie, Sekou, Baba, was indeed a phenomenal man! A MAGNIFICENT BLACK MAN, as his wife Zulma declared in his Birthday celebration just this past year May 2024 when he turned 58 years of age. He will always be remembered and his presence will surely be missed has in fact become LEGENDARY!
Rest in Peace Reg/Sekou!