Meet the Real George P. Burdell 
by Andrew Kerr
April 1, 2008

Every Georgia Tech freshman knows the name "George P. Burdell." He's a student "created" in 1927 when a real student received two Georgia Tech enrollment forms (or so the story goes) and registered one as the fictitious Mr. Burdell. The fake student took classes alongside his real-life creator (who always turned in two homework assignments, took two tests, etc., in order to propagate the illusion). In the end, Mr. Burdell was rewarded with a diploma from the school.

What started off as a prank has snowballed into a bit of popular culture. Burdell served in the Air Force during World War II. In 2001 he was, briefly, the leading contender in a Time magazine poll for person of the year. Burdell pranks continue to surface from time to time.

Burdell's crazy exploits will no doubt elicit giggles from Tech students for as long as the school is around, but one person who is not laughing is George P. Burdell--a real student who suffers the unhappy misfortune of sharing a name with Georgia Tech's famous hoax.

"My name is George P. Burdell, and I am a CS major," Burdell explains. "I am real, and truthfully, my life, when compared to that of my fictional namesake's, is pretty boring."

Boring maybe, but also vexing. When the real Burdell registered for classes in 2005 his schedule was summarily deleted by Georgia Tech's Registrar's Office; they had assumed they were stopping another Burdell hoax. During his freshman year Burdell was unable to secure a dorm room; he camped out for two weeks at the Student Center while working on getting that situation resolved. Now looking ahead to graduate school, Burdell's requests for transcripts are frequently met with denials.

"My whole Georgia Tech experience has been a series of trials," Burdell says. "It took months for me to get a Buzz Card, and to this day I still get suspicious stares whenever I use it. Sometimes I am told by a cashier in a sarcastic voice, 'Ha-ha. "George P. Burdell". Very funny.' And then I have to to produce three other forms of ID in order to convince her of who I am. It takes five minutes to buy a chocolate bar."

A popular Burdell prank is for snubbed wannabe fraternity members to send furniture c.o.d. to the frat house that rejected them--courtesy of George P. Burdell. Now familiar with the prank, the frats are off the hook and collections agencies hound the real George P. Burdell night and day.

The real George P. Burdell's predicament is actually not a product of pure coincidence. His parents, John and Nancy Burdell of Vidalia, Georgia, deliberately named their son after the fictional character. George P. Burdell has not spoken to them in three years.