Bob Berman was a very passionate microbiologist
Robert “Bob” Berman was an official resident of Humboldt County for only two-and-a-half years — all of it at Alder Bay Assisted Living in Eureka — before he died from COVID-19 at the age of 96.
By the end of his life, Berman was reserved. He spent his time mourning his wife, Evelyn, who died in 2017, and mentally preparing for his own passing after losing much of his eyesight and hearing to other illnesses. He wasn’t eager to make friends at Alder Bay.
But even in his last days, those who engaged Berman saw in him the intelligence and passion he cultivated over a lifetime of scientific contribution.
Below his quiet surface, Berman still possessed a deep joy for traveling the world; studying historic boats; reading vigorously about progressive politics; and bonding with his son, Ken, a longtime Humboldt County resident.
It was a life that befit a man described by his loved ones and associates as gentle, passionate, warm and intensely curious. Berman is one of four local residents — all living at Alder Bay — to die from COVID-19.
“He was a pretty amazing, up-and-at-’em guy into his ‘90s,” said Ken Berman, who recently held a memorial for his father on Zoom.
Born on Christmas Day 1923 in San Diego, the future microbiologist had his maritime fascination stoked when he watched ocean liners take to sea from the harbor, sparking in him a commitment to living near the coast.
Berman received his B.A. in biology at San Diego State College and attended Claremont Graduate School. He joined the army, serving as a medic during World War II in France and Germany.
As high waves crashed one night against a troop ship crossing the Atlantic, Berman was the only one onboard who didn’t get seasick.
Instead, the young medic befriended other officers, developing a taste for seeing the world that he would later realize across years of international travel.
Upon return, Berman looked for a job teaching high school biology but found few openings along the coast. Eventually, he found his way into academic research at UC Berkeley.
He built a “distinguished career” in the botany department, a fellow researcher said, and spent many hours as a volunteer researcher of herbaria, the collections of plant specimens that reveal increasingly more about the natural world.
In 1993, Berman helped publish The Jepson Manual, which, at the time, was the “most authoritative field guide for the expert and amateur alike,” according to a UC Berkeley web page.
“His curiosity is what mainly impressed me,” said Bruce Baldwin, a longtime herbarian researcher at Berkeley. “He was a kindly old gentleman who felt a really solid commitment to what we were doing.”
In his free time, Berman never stopped being fascinated by boats. He was an ardent observer of the Golden Rule, a ship sailed by Quakers in the late 1950’s looking to stop nuclear weapons testing at the Marshall Islands.
When the boat was restored and launched from Humboldt Bay in 2015, Berman and his son were there to witness it.
At large, Berman was enamored with Quaker ideology but never formally joined the religion, his son said. Over his decades as a Bay Area resident, Bob Berman fiercely championed progressive politics, vocally supporting the rights of Palestinians against the Israeli government.
His many interests often led him inside Humboldt County’s bookstores when he came to visit Ken. The two would spend afternoons at Booklegger in Eureka, before finishing the day at an ice cream store.
“He liked Old Town a lot,” Ken Berman said, “I think because of the seaport aspect of it.”
Bob also enjoyed folk dance, a passion he shared with his second wife, Evelyn. When the two visited Humboldt County, they would go out dancing in Arcata. They kept making trips together — to the North Coast and everywhere else around the world — until Evelyn died in 2017.
“He never got over the loss of his wife,” Ken Berman said. “It was a really hard transition.”
By the time he lived in Alder Bay, Bob preferred daydreaming about Evelyn instead of meeting new people. He was ready to die, and often said as much, his son said.
“He was very reserved, but if you sat and engaged him in a conversation, you could see he was very pleasant and very intelligent,” said Mark Stephenson, the administrator at Alder Bay.
In the spring of 2019, Bob had enough energy for a quick trip down to Berkeley. He visited the science building where he had spent years researching plant biology.
“He wanted to see if any of his old buddies were there,” Ken Berman said. “Upstairs was his lab — the people there knew him and remembered him! They pulled out a file with his photograph in it. That was pretty great.”
With 96 years in tow, Bob Berman set sail one last time, dying at night on May 18, 2020, from COVID-19.