Obituaries
From our weekly issue dated March 18, 2009
‘Bob’ Van Leer
Longtime Oregon newspaper editor/publisher and civic leader Robert R. “Bob” Van Leer, 81, died Friday, March 6, 2009, at Curry General Hospital in Gold Beach of complications from chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
A memorial service was held Saturday, March 14, at Bethany Lutheran Church in Gold Beach. The Rev. Tim Brueckner officiated.
Mr. Van Leer was a 52-year resident of Gold Beach, having moved there in 1956 when he and his wife, the late Betty Van Leer, purchased the Curry County Reporter. The couple published the Reporter for 41 years before passing it on to daughter and son-in-law Molly & Jim Walker, now of Salem.
Mr. Van Leer was born in St. Louis, Mo. on Aug. 28, 1927. Enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1945 at the age of 17, he was shipped to the Phillippines and assigned to a landing ship, LSM 11. He was then reassigned to a troop transport, USS Gilliam, APA 57, which ultimately was to be a target ship in atom bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean in 1946.
After earning a bachelor of arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis, “Bob” entered the University of Missouri Journalism School at Columbia. There he met Betty Lee Templeman, of Cecilia, Ky. They were married Feb. 16, 1952, in Elizabethtown, Ky. He was a specialist in newspaper ad sales and worked for dailies in Evansville, Ind., Sterling, Ill., and Eureka, Calif. before buying the Reporter. At the latter he was one of the first weekly newspaper publishers to begin using electronic equipment including PCs.
He was long active in professional and civic activities. He was president of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association in 1969-70 and received its highest honor for a working journalist, the Amos E. Voorhies Award, in 1992. In July 2008, Mr. Van Leer was inducted into the Oregon Newspapers Hall of Fame, joining the others who are honored at Allen Hall at the University of Oregon in Eugene.
“Bob” served on elective and appointive civic boards for many years, including Curry Health District, Gold Beach Port Commission, Curry County Fair Board, Port of Gold Beach Budget Committee, Gold Beach Rotary Club, and Gold Beach Chamber of Commerce, of which he served as president.
The Van Leers celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary in February 2007. She died on Jan. 23, 2008. He is survived by four daughters, Sherry Wills, Amy Bornemeier, and Sally Shuey (all of Portland), and Molly Walker, of Salem; and six grandchildren.
Virginia Berkman
Former Illinois Valley resident, Dr. Virginia B. Berkman, 95, died Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at Rock of Ages Mennonite Home in McMinnville, Ore.
Dr. Berkman is the daughter of Frank & Ada Wilson Boynton. Soon after she was born the family moved to Butte, Mont. and later to Seattle, where she spent her childhood, graduating from Lincoln High School in 1931. She met her husband, Elton, while in high school, and they wed on Feb. 4, 1938 in Seattle.
She worked as a secretary after their marriage, and when her husband returned from World War II they entered Palmer Chiropractic College in Davenport, Iowa. They graduated in February 1949. She served as the class secretary, and he as class president.
They moved to Colorado City, Texas and practiced there until 1977, when they retired. On retirement they moved to their ranch outside Cave Junction, where they resided until 1993 when they moved to the Rogue River/Grants Pass area until 2006, when they moved to Rock of Ages.
Dr. Berkman was a gifted painter, played piano and enjoyed square dancing in the Cave Junction and Grants Pass areas for many years. She was known to many for her insight into human nature.
She is survived by many nieces and nephews, and grandnieces and grandnephews. She was preceded in death by her husband in 2006; and a sister, Helen Knowles.
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