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Kenneth Berg Was Teacher, Administrator

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 12:00 CST

By Pratik Joshi, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

Jan. 17--Kenneth A. Berg, who served the St. Paul school district as deputy superintendent through the tumultuous 1970s, died of a heart attack Saturday. He was 87.

Berg's tenure -- from 1973 to 1983 -- was a time of painful cutbacks, including the closure of 35 schools and the dismissal of more than 500 employees because of dwindling school enrollment and shrinking budgets.

As deputy, he took some of the heat but always did the best job he could without worrying about criticism, said Rolland Ring, a friend and former principal of Edina High School.

Berg spent more than 30 years as a St. Paul teacher and school administrator.

After he retired in 1983, a St. Paul Dispatch article noted that he helped develop the school district's budgeting process, preferring to build the budget from an absolute minimum to avoid paring it down later. That practice served the district well in financially lean times, the article said.

His daughter, Cynthia Berg, said he always preached the value of education, saying that "education was something no one could take away from you."

As a high school student in Grand Meadow, Minn., about 95 miles south of St. Paul, Berg found a mentor in the town's school superintendent, who helped Berg get admitted to St. Paul's Macalester College in 1936.

Four years later, armed with a degree in physics, he began teaching at North St. Paul High School.

In 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served as a radar specialist in the South Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

After the war, he taught physics at Macalester College for six years while pursuing his master's degree in education, which he earned in 1950 at the University of Minnesota.

In 1952 he became a science teacher at Central High School, and in 1955 he became assistant principal there.

In the '60s, he served as principal at Harding and Highland Park high schools and later as director ofmaintenance and operations for the school district. From 1969 to 1972, he was assistant superintendent of education.

Berg was sensitive to students' needs and wanted to make sure they were well-prepared for their fields of interest, Ring said.

He also promoted the use of computers in the classroom and worked with area businesses to develop school programs.

Berg retired in 1983 to spend time with his family but went back to work for nine months in 1991, serving as interim assistant superintendent of South Washington County Schools at the district's request, his daughter said.

He is survived by Beryl, his wife of 63 years; sons David of Ellsworth, Wis., and Thomas of Eden Prairie; daughter Cynthia of Roseville; eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 104 S. Snelling Ave., St. Paul.

Pratik Joshi can be reached at pjoshi@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-5509.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.

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Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.)

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