Editor Gerry Berghold, BB-Founder and long-time newsletter editor, prepared a homily in early 2005 (shortly after his cancer diagnosis) that was to be read at the memorial service after his death. In it, he requested that it be shared with his „Internet correspondents“. Although it has taken some time to track down a written copy of the homily, we have done so and now will honor his request. Here are his words:

Having bee notified that I had a life threatening illness, I’ve prepared a brief sketch of my life. I hope it will be read at my memorial service and be of some comfort to my friends and relatives. I would also like it to shared with my Internet correspondents. It includes those thoughts and events which have been most meaningful to me and may well explain how I became the person you all knew.

I was born Sept. 22, 1930 in Allentown, PA, the second son of Julius Berghold and Frida Sorger, first generation children of Austro-Hungarian immigrants. I was fortunate in being raised in a multi-generation family, among grandparents, parents and a doting uncle. (I lost my father to divorce but gained a fine stepfather in Harry B. Carpenter.) There was a lot of love, discipline, respect, adherence to principles and Christian work ethics. From an early age, I was instructed to do good and to make the right decisions. The first decision was made for me, baptism in St. Peter’s Lutheran church in Allentown, PA. Much later in life I was to discover that the Berghold clan had an unbroken tradition of the Lutheran faith extending as far back as the days of Martin Luther. They were refugees from counter-Reformation Catholicism in the province of Styria in Austria and migrated to sanctuary in western Hungary in the mid-1600’s. This knowledge was most comforting in that it gave me deep roots, in what to become, for my generation, a generally rootless society.
I graduated from Allentown High School, class of 1948, with honors. I served as editor-in-chief of my junior and senior high school newspapers, both of which received scholastic press association awards for excellence during my tenure. This bit of early writing and recognition caused me to enjoy writing in one form or another for the rest of my life.

The next four years were spent in military service. I became an airman in the US Air Force, 97th Bomb Wing, Strategic Air Command, where I rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant. I worked first as an armament technician, later as base supply inspector. While in service during the Korean War I saw no combat, serving at bases in Colorado and Texas and two former RAF bomber bases in East Anglia, England. Upon discharge, I entered Lehigh University under the GI Bill, receiving as BS degree in Accounting with the class of 1957.

To be continued