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Carl Prosser Burke was born December 30th, 1924 in Boise, Idaho. While attending Boise High School he became friends with future four-term Senator Frank Church. When the two were still in high school Burke ran a successful campaign to elect Frank Church as student body present. Later Carl Burke would manage all of Frank Church's campaigns in the Senate and his 1976 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Both Church and Burke studied law at Stanford University and established law practices in Boise, Idaho. While Church turned to politics as a career, Burke remained practicing law except when acting as Church's campaign manager.

Mr. Burke served in World War II with the 44th Division, 114th Infantry Regiment, where he fought in France, Germany, and Austria, receiving the Combat Infantry Badge, the Presidential Unit citation, the Purple Heart, and the European Theatre Badge. Upon returning from the war, he married Carolyn Spicer in 1949 and received his law degree from Stanford in 1950. He married Gisela Lubben in 1977.

Carl P. Burke joined his father in the law firm of Elam & Burke, which became one of the largest law firms in Idaho. Burke served as president of the Boise Bar Association and in 1976 received the Distinguished Lawyer Award from the Idaho Bar Association. Federal offices held by Carl Burke include serving as one of the first federal law clerks in Idaho in 1950, working under Governor Chase Clark, serving as counsel for the United States Office of Price Stabilization, and when Idaho's Cecil Andrus was serving as President Carter's Secretary of the Interior Carl Burke was appointed to the United States National Parks Systems Advisory Board, a board that he served on for six years, sometimes as chairperson.

Carl Prosser Burke passed away on June 29, 2011 in Boise, Idaho.