The following is the tribute to Tom Berg provided by Pat Lenington in our catalog for Auction #26 featuring part 1/2 of the Tom Berg collection.
These are the memories of my best friend, Tom Berg, who we lost on July 4th, 2014. He would miss his greatest achievement in his collecting career, the production of the magnificent 2014 A.P.I.C. Denver National Convention.
Tom was the consummate political collector who specialized in William Jennings Bryan items, coattails, Colorado locals and advertising, as well as John W. Davis items, and early ferrotypes. He was an excellent Harvard-educated conservation attorney who saved a number of Colorado Springs mountainsides from land developers. He was also a dedicated distance runner who was a manager of Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak road races.
My first recollection of meeting Tom was at the 1987 Louisville A.P.I.C. National Convention where he demonstrated great personal sacrifice in assisting stroke victim and fellow Colorado collector Mac McGraw during the show.
Later Tom and I attended the first Reno Regional Show. We would eventually have a great time, but we arrived late in the evening and were assigned a room in the back of the hotel with only a double bed. Tom was ready for a different room after a night of sharing a bed with me and my snoring.
In 1996 I took my high school track and field team to Colorado Springs for a meet in what was supposed to be balmy weather. Tom braved the miserable 39 degree weather with biting snow during the lunch break to show me some new Colorado political items he had just purchased. He didn't permit bad weather to slow his interest in collecting political items.
We attended many political button shows together and he always insisted in his morning run before anyone else was awake. At many of the shows he and I would room hop while Cathy sold our pinbacks much better than we could.
He adopted the vegan lifestyle which had its complications in finding vegan food on the road. Tom and his lovely wife Cathy visited my lovely wife Karen and I in Norman on their travels to the West Palm Beach Show to publicize the Denver National. Karen and I took Cathy and Tom to a newly opened vegan restaurant in Oklahoma City. Tom had a wonderful time but Cathy was not impressed because she was not a vegan. The next year 2014 he would set an A.P.I.C. record for the consumption of kale at a West Palm Beach restaurant.
Tom was a great friend to many people in a number of avocations from political items collectors to Colorado Springs distance runners, and conservation attorneys. He had a tremendous outgoing personality that few acquaintances could resist. His attention to detail contributed greatly to the success of the Denver National Convention along with the work of Martha and Ron Puechner. His Memorial at the Denver National Convention demonstrated that he will be sorely missed.
- Pat Lenington
