William Starling Burgess

Starling attended Milton Academy, a progressive boarding school near Boston, where he became interested in aviation, designed his first sailboat, Sally II, and patented a sophisticated lightweight machine gun. Burgess graduated from Milton Academy in 1897 and entered Harvard College with the Class of 1901. As Burgess began life at Harvard, tension was building between Spain and the U.S. The mysterious sinking of an American battleship, the USS Maine, on February 15, 1898, increased the drumbeat for war, and war was declared on April 11, 1898. Starling Burgess was one of a hundred Harvard undergraduates (out of 2,400) to volunteer for military service. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and because of his proven expertise in weapons design, was promoted to the rank of Gunner's Mate. He received credit for the courses he missed during this period by special vote of the Harvard faculty. For reasons not entirely clear, he left Harvard without completing his degree, and opened his own yacht design office in Boston.

Burgess married five times. His first marriage was to Helene Adams Willard (1882–1902) in 1901. Helene, who had spina bifida, committed suicide the following year. Burgess published a volume of poetry in response to this tragedy, "The Eternal Laughter and Other Poems", in 1903, with an introduction by Julian Hawthorne (Nathaniel Hawthorne's son).

In 1904 Burgess married Rosamond Tudor (b. 1878), an artist and granddaughter of Frederic Tudor, immediately following her divorce from one of Burgess' best friends and clients, Alex Higginson. Rosamund Burgess was independent and strong-willed, one of the few American amateurs who gained their engineer's license to operate a steam launch, serving the necessary apprenticeship by firing their boat Ox. Tudor and Burgess had three children: sons Edward (1905–1914), who drowned in Marblehead Harbor June 24, 1914, after falling off their boat and Frederic (1907-1985) and daughter Starling (1915–2008). Starling later became a well known illustrator and children's author under the name of Tasha Tudor. After the couple's divorce in 1925 the children went to live with family friends, Gwen Hawthorne Mikkelson and Michael Mikkelson. Gwen was the daughter of Julian Hawthorne.

Burgess married Else Foss in 1925, closed his office in Boston, and moved to New York. The couple had two children, Diana and Ann.

He subsequently wed Nannie Dale Biddle in 1933. Ms. Biddle was the principal financial backer of the Dymaxion Car project, on which Burgess had been working with Buckminster Fuller.

In 1937, Burgess hired Marjorie Young (1913-2005), a talented designer 35 years his junior. With his encouragement, she designed and built a 25' sloop, "Pomelian" for her own use. Rudder Magazine proclaimed her "the only female naval architect in America" in 1940. the couple worked together on projects for the Navy throughout World War II, and married in 1945. A friend of Ms.Young described Burgess: "With all his brilliance, he is a child, and that is part of his charm. He will not face hard facts, but will hide from them and will love the person who shields him from them."