Gene G Berg

Service: 10 a.m. Saturday in Laurel Land Memorial Chapel. Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Laurel Land Funeral Home in Fort Worth.

Memorials: in lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in honor of Gene's life and memory to Christ's Haven for Children in Keller.

Gene was born in February 1929 in Goose Creek, the son of Johnnie and Nelda Berg. He grew up around the Baytown, Goose Creek and Pelly areas of Texas where he attended Horace Mann Junior High and Robert E. Lee High School. Gene had several jobs as a teenager, including working nights at a creamery making ice cream. The summer of 1944 he worked at the Houston shipyard installing the engine on Liberty ships. Gene enlisted in the Army after World War II and was stationed at The Presidio in San Francisco, Calif. In 1950 he was called to active duty again and served as a company clerk in Japan and Korea. He was awarded an Occupational Medal and a Korean Service Medal with three bronze stars. In 1952 Gene moved to Fort Worth and started working a Bell Aircraft. One day he asked a co-worker if he knew any nice girls who might be interested in going out on a date. He was set up on a blind date with a lovely girl named Geneva Gail Owen. She became the love of his life and they married May 2, 1953. Gene went to work for his brother-in-law, Harrold Owen, at Gearhart-Owen Inc. in 1965. He manufactured explosives for the perforation of oil wells. He retired after 33 years, shortly before the company was bought out by Halliburton. Over the years Gene had developed a passion for wanting to fly small planes when he took his first airplane ride at the age of 9. Later he received his private pilot's license and owned several planes throughout his life. When health issues finally prohibited him from being in the air, he started building remote-controlled model airplanes. He was a member of the Planesmen Club of Fort Worth and the Academy of Model Aeronautics. Gene and Geneva have been longtime members of Highland Church of Christ in south Fort Worth. The Berg family wishes to extend gratitude to the caregivers at Community Hospice of Texas for the excellent care, compassion and love shown to Gene and their family on the last days of his life.

He was preceded in death by his parents; one sister, Joyce Doyle-Murphey; and a son-in-law, Doug Boatright.

Survivors: His loving wife of 61 years, Geneva; daughters, Sandy Saunders, Linda Berg and Leigh Ann Boatright; eight grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and many extended family and dear friends.