Dan R. Burling

Kenesaw resident Dan Burling, 63, passed away Tuesday, December 23, 2025, at his home.

Memorial services will be at 1p.m. Wednesday, January 7, at Evangelical Free Church in Hastings with the Pastor Matt Sass officiating. There will be no visitation or viewing. Private family burial will be at Kenesaw Cemetery.

Dan was born August 4, 1962, in Hastings, NE to Carroll and Bonnie Burling. Dan married Tammy Gildersleeve on January 2, 1988 and they were blessed with three children.

Dan graduated from Kenesaw High school in 1980 and Sterling College in 1984. He then came back to join the family farm and successfully continued to build and grow Burling Farms, Inc. into what it is today. He was always willing to learn and grow and expand his mind to all the new technology available to him so that he could eventually pass on a thriving business and legacy to the next generation.

Dan was a born leader who always listened first, observed, and then gave his input. He was a man of very few words, but when he spoke, it was with gentle authority, always using his deep faith to lead with love and gentleness. He was very active in the Young Farmer and Rancher’s program in the early years and served as the Hastings Farm Bureau President for several terms. Dan was accepted into the LEAD XV11 two-year program where he honed his communicating and people skills, while gaining a wider scope of agriculture in general. During that program he travelled to Chicago to experience inner city Chicago in a ride along with police and finished with a three-week trip to South Africa. Dan served as the Board Chairman of YOUTH For CHRIST for 20 years where he worked tirelessly to bring back an organization that was struggling and saw the fruits of his labor come to fruition before he stepped down to pursue other interests. Throughout his life at various times, he was a coach, a Sunday school teacher, a top producer for NC+ Hybrids, and in his final years a genealogical detective putting together the Burling family history.

Dan was preceded in death by grandparents, Ralph and Thelma Burling, Daniel and Lydia Ann Snyder and Leland and Edna May Keister. Brother-in-law, Rodney Knight.

SURVIVORS:

Wife: Tammy Burling, Kenesaw, NE

Parents: Carroll & Bonnie Burling, Hastings, NE

Children and spouses: Brennan & Brittany Burling, Omaha, NE

Bryton & Kassie Burling, Omaha, NE

Brea Burling Barlow & Matthew, LaVista, NE

Grandchild: Clara Jolene Barlow, LaVista, NE

Siblings: D’aun and Raymond Best, Wichita, KS

Darla Knight, Hastings, NE

David Burling, York, NE

Nieces & Nephews: Derek & Vanessa Best, Wichita, KS

Trina Knight, Manhattan, KS

Jake Gildersleeve, Platte City, MO

Abby Gildersleeve, Platte City, MO