Caroline Hart Bergh
March 26, 1920 - June 4, 2015
Caroline “Brownie” Bergh died June 4, 2015 in Portola Valley, CA at the age of 95. Born March 26, 1920 in Washington, DC, she was the fourth of five children born to Caroline Brownson Hart and Admiral Thomas C. Hart of Sharon, CT. The family was based in Sharon, but with Admiral Hart they saw the world. The family also built life-long ties to the Adirondacks through its rustic camp on Little Moose Lake in upstate New York.
Brownie graduated from Vassar College with a degree in Spanish in 1943, and then worked with Pan Am in Florida before enlisting in the Navy Reserve as a WAVE in 1945. In 1945 Ensign Hart christened the USS Brownson, DD-868, named for her grandfather Admiral Willard H. Brownson, and became a lifelong member and contributor to the Society of Sponsors of the US Navy.
Brownie liked to say that she met her husband Dana Bergh, of Los Angeles, over the atomic bomb. Both were serving on Joint Task Force One, whose Operation Crossroads in the Bikini Islands was charged with furthering the military’s knowledge of the new atomic weapon. They married in 1948. Over their 41 years together while Dana engaged in a wide variety of business undertakings, Brownie led the rearing of their four children, while pursuing her love of horses. They preferred a physically active life-style lived close to nature, with plentiful opportunities to enjoy live classical music and international travel, often off the beaten path.
Dana and Brownie settled in North Ferrisburgh, VT in 1973. Brownie had long been a volunteer teacher of English as a Second Language. Now she and Dana increased their service work to include Vermont Educational TV, the Vermont Mozart Festival, a Rotary International student exchange program, and helping found a food co-op. She served on the boards of Vermont ACLU and her church.
She moved to The Sequoias in Portola Valley in 2000 and began ESL instruction for Spanish-speakers in the local adult school and at The Sequoias.
She is survived by three children and their spouses: Tom and June Bergh of Peaks Island, ME; Eric and Billie Bergh of Northfield, MN; and Carol and Curt Terwilliger of Hillsborough, CA; and by eight grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband Dana; her son Chris Bergh of North Ferrisburgh, VT; and her four siblings.
Memorial contributions may be made to Mission Hospice and Home Care www.missionhospice.org in San Mateo, CA or Peninsula Open Space Trust www. openspacetrust.org in Palo Alto, CA.