Obituary of LeRoy Berg

LeRoy had to reinvent his life many times. Thus, the theme of “Dig Another Well.”

He was born on April 20^th, 1936, in his family’s farm home North of WaKeeney, Kansas, and left this life on October 19^th, 2023, at his home in Ault, Colorado. He waited for his wife and all four of his children to be at his side before he passed. He was a much loved and respected husband, father, and grandpa.

He lived his young life on the family farm where he and his four brothers rode horses, loved to swim in the creek, (when Mom wasn’t looking) and doing farm things. He went to a one-room schoolhouse just East of the farm where he was the only one in his grade most years. He met Ruth Strange in 1955 and asked her to marry him that Christmas. He gave his life to Jesus that year too, and was baptized at The Church of God, in Hill City, Kansas. Ruth and LeRoy were married on June2nd, 1956. They were blessed with four great children; Randy, James, Darla, and Debbie, who teamed up to care for their Dad during his last weeks.

LeRoy had many skills. He worked in the oil field, farming, and building houses and highways. We moved to Fort Collins the day President Kennedy was killed in 1963. He built the Fox Shopping Center and many houses in Fort Collins; one special house was built around a cottonwood tree. It had a garage section, kitchen and living room section, and also a bedroom section, complete with a gymnasium!

He moved his family to Pierce, Colorado, in 1974 to the Alkire Dairy when there was a big slowdown in construction in Fort Collins. They moved to their present home in Ault, Colorado, in 1977 and became carpenters again.

In 1985, when LeRoy was 49, he was electrocuted while installing siding on a church in Galeton. A piece of metal siding arched over the city powerline and killed him, but he was revived when he fell to the ground. He lost use of his right hand, burned over 35% of his body, and his lungs and heart were covered with scar tissue. After the accident he was unable to work but took up many projects like; painting sawblades with barn pictures, making wishing wells, and building windmill clocks, etc. (and quarter pounders.) In 1993, Ruth came home from work at UNC to discover that he had had a bad stroke that morning. He had gone all day without help. He had to start all over again to speak and understand. Before that he and Ruth would talk about everything, he had been quite a storyteller and skit planner for square dancers and had loved visiting with people. People we attracted to his smile and baby blues. After the accidents he had lots of object lessons and show and tell. We were still able to go to Yuma for sixteen winters and made many friends along the way.

LeRoy was preceded in death by both of his parents and his four brothers. He was survived by his wife of 67 years, Ruth Berg, his sister Rita and husband Tom, and his four children: Randy and Charlotte, James and Pat, Darla and Rick, and Debbie and Larry. He was also survived by his 13 grandchildren and their spouses, 48 great-grandchildren, and 7 great-great-grandchildren.