Submitted by: Dan Rich

Thomas P. Bergin

Aug. 19, 1923 - May 8, 2003

South Bend Tribune 5/11/2003

Dr. Thomas P. Bergin, 79, of Brookdale Drive, South Bend, Ind., died following an illness at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, May 8, in his residence. Dr. Bergin was born Aug. 19, 1923, in Watertown, N.Y., to the late Thomas and Sarah (Daly) Bergin, and had lived in South Bend since 1941, coming from Watertown. He was also preceded in death by a sister, Nora Haley; and by a brother, John Bergin.

On April 19, 1954, in South Bend, he married Barbara Barrett, who survives. He is also survived by a daughter, Mary Ellen (William) Staunton of Barrington, Ill.; three sons, Christopher J. Bergin of Oklahoma City, Okla., Thomas Patrick Bergin Jr. of Chicago, Ill., and Bryan B. (Troy) Bergin of Granger, Ind.; six grandchildren, Sean, Reiley, Allison, Dillon, Kelly and Mary Katherine Bergin; and by three sisters, Kay Watts and Anna Murrock, both of Watertown, and Mary Ellen Vecchi of Canandaigua, N.Y.

Dr. Bergin was director emeritus of continuing education and professor emeritus of management at the University of Notre Dame. He graduated from Notre Dame in 1947, and held a master's degree in economics from the University of Vermont and a doctoral degree from the University of Syracuse. In 1952 Dr. Bergin was appointed head of the Department of Business Administration at Notre Dame. Appointed dean of continuing education by Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, he assumed responsibility for continuing education in 1964 and laid the groundwork for the major expansion that began two years later with the opening of the Center for Continuing Education. Over the succeeding quarter of a century the center has been the site for scores of major national and international academic, church, government and business education conferences.

A researcher in the field of economic growth and development, Dr. Bergin was appointed by President Kennedy to an advisory board of the U.S. Department of Commerce and was a consultant to the department in 1960-61. He has served with many organizations including the President's Conference of the National Industrial Conference Board, the Finance Forum, the Board of Regents Foundation for Economic and Business Studies of the State of Indiana, the New York Stock Exchange Nominating Committee and the American Economic Association.

Dr. Bergin served the National University Continuing Education Association in a number of capacities, including two terms on its national board. For more than 20 years he had also been involved in education and the arts, including testifying before Congress on the National Endowment for the Arts' artists-in-schools programs, serving as chairman for the National Endowment for the Arts Educators, serving on the Rockefeller Panel on Arts, Education and Americans, and participating in a White House meeting to develop an awareness of vocations in the arts and arts-related fields.

In 1978 President Carter appointed him to a six-year term on the Council for the National Endowment for the Arts. He was named the Jesse Jones Professor of Business Administration in 1961, helped establish the Cardinal O'Hara Lecture Series and was chair of the series for several years. He was to have received the John Cardinal O'Hara Award on June 6. He received the "Sagamore of the Wabash" Award in 1997 after completing a six-year term on the Indiana Humanities Council, and was inducted into the first class of the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Bergin served as a consultant to numerous businesses, government agencies and educational institutions. During the past 40 years he received four presidential appointments to positions in the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Endowment for the Arts.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 13, in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, University of Notre Dame. Burial will follow at Cedar Grove Cemetery. Friends may call from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday, May 12, in the Our Lady Chapel in the Basilica where a Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Memorial contributions may be made to the University of Notre Dame Scholarship Fund.