At 100, nothing slows Therese Berg down

By MICHAEL BROWN
Managing Editor
 
On Dec. 30, Therese Berg turned 100 years old and there seems to be nothing capable of slowing her down.
Two years ago, she broke her elbow in a fall. It healed.
Three years ago, she fell down some stairs and had a hinged plate put in her knee. She recovered.
At age 91, she was hit by a truck. “I was a terrible mess,” Berg recalled, noting the extent of her injuries she overcame.  
Berg still drives herself to the grocery store, church and the pool at Reid Park, where she swims every day.
“I say my prayers and I want to get well,” she explained. “I like it here, so I want to stay.”
Berg comes from pioneer stock, including Carlos Velasco, who emigrated from Mexico in the 19 ^th century and operated the Spanish-language newspaper El Fronterizo for 37 years, and Hiram Stevens, a Catholic who represented the Arizona territory in Congress.
She grew up in the shadow of Tucson’s Armory Park, and fondly remembered walking with her father Charles Velasco to Consolidated Bank, then on “the southwest corner of Stone and Congress” to open a savings account in the 1920s.

“He would pick me up and sit me on the counter,” Berg recalled. “They explained to me how my money could make more money.”
If she earned 10 cents, she would spend five and deposit five. “It was my dad who taught me how to save and make more.”
Over the years, that strategy had served Berg and the Tucson community well. She accrued wealth and established funds to support numerous charitable organizations, ranging from Catholic Community Services to the University of Arizona and Salpointe Catholic High School. Other groups she’s supported include the Pima Council on Aging, Arizona Public Media and the Sonoran Institute.

Berg’s sunny disposition and remarkable memory mask the personal tragedies she encountered throughout her life.
At age 3, during a trip to California, she inexplicably fell deathly ill. Travelling home by train, Berg was rushed to her doctor and diagnosed with polio. While quick treatment saved her life, it left her with a right leg that was several inches smaller than her left.
Four years later, while working at her father’s gas station, she met a local Shriner who arranged for her to have treatment at the group’s surgical center in California. After two years on a waiting list, Berg and her parents drove to San Francisco for surgery that lengthened the Achilles tendon in her affected leg. Although her parents had to return to Tucson, Berg spent three months at the facility while healing, eventually leaving with a heavy brace to help support the limb.
Undaunted, Berg began a love affair with the water, teaching herself how to swim – brace included – at a local pool. Two years later, she returned to Shriners for more surgery and two months’ recovery. It eventually  freed her from the brace, a life-changing difference that became immediately apparent when she stepped into the pool.

“I felt as light as a feather,” she said.
She attended St. Joseph Academy, founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, and later run by the Immaculate Heart Sisters. She graduated from Tucson High School in 1937 and enrolled at the University of Arizona to pursue a business degree. As a junior, she switched her major to teaching. The added curriculum only cost her an extra semester, and she completed her studies in January of 1942.
At the time, a school official from Globe came to Tucson to recruit teachers, offering to pay $100 per month. Berg asked what it cost to live in Globe, and the answer -$75 a month – didn’t impress her. She told the official she needed to think about it and talked to her dad that evening.
“My dad said, ‘If you don’t think it’s right, don’t do it,’” she recalled. “I just didn’t want to go there and not have any money.”

The official was surprised and disappointed when she declined the offer the next day, but Berg was unflappable. A short time later, she received an offer from the US government, the result of a civil service exam she had taken during the previous fall semester.
“It was for a position at Fort Huachuca, making twice as much,” she said.
After a few years, she was asked to take an assignment in Alaska, to assist in the construction of the Alaska Highway, a contiguous thoroughfare connecting lower 48 states to Alaska, starting in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.
The Tucson native knew she was no match for the cold, so after taking a temporary position at the fort, she took a job at Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corp., which operated a site currently occupied by Raytheon.

During that time, Berg used to enjoy hanging out with her family, including visits to their Saturday night poker games. At a holiday game on July 4, 1944, she again became extremely ill and was rushed to the hospital. Diagnosed with pneumonia, she fell into a coma that lasted 10 days.
Berg said she remembers waking up in an oxygen tent and vomiting large volumes of green sputum, just before her mother was to visit. The nurses cleaned her up as best as possible. When her mom arrived, “she looked so amazed. She thought I wasn’t going to make it,” Berg said.
In 1946, she married Donald Walter Hinman.  Nine months later, Charles Clifford Hinman was born. Years later, Charles was studying at the University of Arizona’s aerospace engineering program and a member of the Air Force ROTC when he was diagnosed with cancer in April of 1968. He died on Dec. 7.

Despite an autopsy, the exact type of cancer was never determined, Berg said. Doctors theorized it might have started somewhere in thymus gland and metastacized in other parts of his body, she added.
Berg recalled having to deal with the hardship alone, because five years into her marriage with Donald, it suddenly ended. “He just went to work one day and never came back.”
There was no reason, no message, no contact with him, Berg said, and the suddenness of the loss made her feel sad and embarrassed. She quietly filed for divorce and moved on.

In 1955, beyond her expectations, she married Robert “Bob” Berg.
“He was just a great guy. I didn’t think I was ever going to marry again.”
For 23 years, they lived happily together. They bought a house on the East side and Berg, a carpenter by trade, remodeled it. They kept two horses in back, and a swimming pool for Berg to get her daily workout.
In October of 1978, Bob was diagnosed with cancer. He died two years later.
Berg admitted losing Bob had a huge impact on her life. She said she felt lost. Then in 1981, she was sitting in her den and “a little voice came to me.”
That “voice” encouraged her to call Salpointe Catholic High School, located not far from her home. She was offered a job as a counselor and finance teacher.
She said that at the time “I didn’t even know where it was.”
She worked there for 13 years, before retiring – for good – at age 74, in 1994.
“I decided I would retire before I died,” Berg said.

She joined a local seniors’ group and kept right on living. At age 81, she had heart surgery to repair a mitral valve.
Guess what? She recovered fully.
At 100, Berg still cares for her own home, including regular housework and laundry. She has no desire to travel, and the only health issues coming up are some injections to treat macular degeneration.

She still is also generous with the income she gleans from a number of annuity investments she established over the years, following the same advice she learned as a child.   
“It was just like my father told me. ‘Money makes money.’”