WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Burton L. Wilner, 86, of Palm Beach, Fla., and a longtime resident of Auburn, died in West Palm Beach on May 5, of a stroke.

He was born in Newburyport, Mass., on Oct. 17, 1921. He grew up in Haverhill, Mass., lived most of his life in Auburn, and after retirement in 1988, settled in Palm Beach, Fla. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology until he enlisted and served in the U.S. Army Air Corp as a first lieutenant during World War II, where he was a radar countermeasures officer, flying B29s in the Pacific, with the 500th Bombardment group.

When the war ended, he returned home, married Jacqueline M. Kraunz, and finished his education at the University of Maine at Orono. He worked with his father and other family at the Wilner Wood Products Co. in Norway, where he was the technical and research director.

He was a founder and long-term chairman of the board of the Stephens Memorial Hospital which served the greater Norway and South Paris communities. He was an active member of the Maine Organization of Hospital Trustees and the Maine Hospital Licensing Advisory Board.

He was active in the Lewiston-Auburn Jewish Community, where he served as president of the Jewish Federation, Jewish Community Center, and Congregation Beth Jacob and was a founding member of Temple Shalom. He served on the synagogue’s Ritual and Cemetery Committees and chaired the Community Hebrew School Committee.

While living in Auburn, he was an active participant in the International Toastmasters Club and Boy Scout Troop 111. In Palm Beach, he was a member of Temple Emanu-El and their Men’s Club and Bereavement Committee. He was a devoted supporter of interfaith initiatives, both in Auburn, and in Florida.

He found a new passion upon his retirement to Florida, when he served as the chairman of the Chaplaincy Service of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County. He then completed intensive training in clinical pastoral education, including a pastoral care internship, to become a clinical member of the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education. He worked as a Jewish and Interfaith Chaplain with the Hospice of Palm Beach County and at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Palm Beach.

He is survived by his wife, Jacqueline; his daughter, Ronnie Sugarman and her husband, Barry, of Brookline, Mass.; son, David Wilner and his wife, Jan, of Holden, Mass.; son, James Wilner and his wife, Laura, of Marlborough, Mass.; he was a loving grandfather to Michael, Nathaniel, and Joseph Sugarman, Sarah (Kornreich) Golubchik, Hannah (Kornreich) Lastoff, Ilana Kornreich, Samantha and Joshua Wilner, Julianne and Joel Wilner; great-grandfather to Yishua Golubchik; his sisters, Elinor Goldblatt of Auburn, Ruth Schloss and her husband, Jay, of South Carolina, and June Chason of Virginia; his brother, Stanley and his wife, Phyllis, of South Carolina, and previously of Portland; and many nephews, nieces and cousins.

He was predeceased by a daughter, Janet Kornreich in 1992; his brothers, Charles and Richard; and sister, Avis Schwartz.