William Albert Berg
Today, on the banks of a heavenly blue-ribbon trout stream, stands the consummate fly fisherman. William Albert Berg died in his sleep April 9, 2021. He was born Oct. 21, 1948 in Billings, MT to Albert Erick Berg and Mildred ‘Babe’ (Behnke) Berg.
Bill grew up in Billings, MT and graduated from West High School in 1966. He played American Legion Baseball for Post 4 as a high schooler. A scholarship from American Legion took him to the University of Wyoming, and he later graduated from Eastern Montana College with a degree in Mathematics.
In 1970 Bill married Sandra Lee Schiavon (since divorced), and they had one daughter, Sara. His interest in math and computers eventually had him running the technology department at Billings Public Library back when a computer took up an entire office. As the advent of personal computing was taking the world by storm, Bill started Sunbird, a local PC service company. His love of statistics and probability then carried him into a second career as a professional poker player. When he retired it was to follow his true calling: camping and fishing all the wonderful rivers and streams of his beloved Montana.
In his retirement, Bill enjoyed a kind of freedom that others only dream of. He lived in his fifth wheel year round, traveled the U.S. as a ‘snowbird,’ fished with friends, worked equations and played saxophone as much as he wanted. Bill’s sax playing never quite reached anything that could be called ‘skill,’ but he was pleased to report that his naive sound was a perfect moose call. He was the most ‘scientific’ angler any of us had ever met. If you asked him what fly to tie on, he would never tell you ‘Blue-Winged Olive’ or ‘March Brown;’ he would always give you the Latin name of that day’s hatch. One of his proudest moments was catching a 22″ brown trout on a #22 fly on the Beaverhead River. He had a couple ‘I almost drowned in that stream’ stories that were hilariously scary and so much fun for him to retell. Bill, we will take over the telling of your stories, and you will live on in our memories.
Bill was preceded in death by his mother and father. Survivors include his daughter Sara (Rinney Fujiwara) Hatfield and his granddaughter Schiavon Fujiwara, sister Bonnie (Dave) Warren and their children, Tanya (Toby) Dahlberg, Mike Warren (Heather Sieler) and Sheldon Warren. He is also survived by great niece and nephew Tealy and Tace Dahlberg.
Bill was blessed to have many close friends from all over the world. You know who you are, and Bill loved you very much. The family will hold a private memorial to scatter his ashes later this summer at one of his favorite fishing holes. ‘I would rather sit on a pumpkin, and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.’ – Henry David Thoreau.
Published by Billings Gazette on Apr. 25, 2021.
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