Teacher always there to encourage her students
By Karen Roebuck, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, May 19, 2003

Ethel Berg lived most of her life surrounded by the children she loved: her eight brothers and sisters, her second-grade students and her 30 nieces and nephews.

"She loved teaching. She was very good with children," said her niece, Lillian Shoupe. "She helped all her brothers and sisters with their children. She was a very, very loving aunt."

Miss Berg, who spent her last years at a Fox Chapel nursing home, died Saturday, May 17, 2003, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. She was 90.

She taught for 41 years at Davidson Elementary School in Penn Hills.

"She loved to teach. She just was good with them. She was very inspiring and patient and firm," Shoupe said.

As a student, Miss Berg took a train from Penn Hills to Turtle Creek High School. She went on to earn a two-year degree from Normal School in Indiana County.

Miss Berg was named after her mother; and her twin brother, Fred, who died 11 years ago, was named after their father. Never married, Miss Berg lived with her mother until her death in 1979. Miss Berg spent a lot of time with her extended family.

"She was always helping. She was a godsend, very sweet. She was an angel," Shoupe said. "She never missed any of our events. We were all in sports. There was always Ethel in the stands." When she was in her 60s, Miss Shoupe broke a hip going to one of Shoupe's brother's high school basketball games.

Miss Berg named her dog Sugar to celebrate the University of Pittsburgh football team's 1982 Sugar Bowl victory. Her nephew, Tom Flynn, was a star Pitt cornerback who later played for the Green Bay Packers and the 1987 Super Bowl champion New York Giants.

She is survived by a sister, Mary M. Flynn, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Visitation is from 2 to 4 and 6 to 9 p.m. today and from 10 a.m. until the 11 a.m. service Tuesday at the Burket-Truby Funeral Home, 421 Allegheny Ave., Oakmont. Burial will be at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Penn Hills.