For nearly the entire decade, Bill served on the City of Happy Valley, OR Parks Advisory Committee where he brought a wealth of knowledge as a former Parks and Recreation Director in California. With his experience, Bill also represented the City on the North Clackamas Parks and Recreation District Advisory Board and Milwaukie Community Center Board. Showing his passion for the City beyond parks and recreation, Bill served on the City’s Budget Committee for six years.
As an avid lover of sports and recreation, Bill was a strong advocate for the upgrades to Happy Valley Park in recent years, such as the resurfacing of the basketball and tennis courts, upgrade of the boardwalk, and construction of the All Abilities Playground. As a result of his passion and advocacy, Happy Valley is a better place.
Bill was born in San Francisco, CA on February 10, 1943. He graduated from San Francisco State and received his BS in Recreation Administration. After his college graduation, Bill served four years in the Army during the Vietnam war. On July 4th, 1987, Bill married Tomma in Ridgecrest, CA.
Bill worked as the Director of Parks and Recreation for the City for Ridgecrest, CA for 29 years. He was responsible for establishing a variety of sports and enrichment programs such as, the Senior Center, youth sports, and swim activities, preschool programs, youth dance and gymnastics, Junior Olympics, Adult Softball for the all the citizens of Ridgecrest until his retirement in 1997. In 1997, he relocated with his wife to Vienna, VA. Bill soon came out of retirement and worked for a brief time for the City of Herndon in their Parks and Recreation program before taking on the position of Executive Director for the Mclean Community Center in Mclean, VA. Bill continued to provide his leadership skills and down-to-earth approach to managing an important center for the McLean, VA community. In 2006, he officially retired and moved with his wife to Happy Valley, OR. Upon relocating to the Portland area, it was important for Bill to find a community with nice parks, an active community with healthy government involvement. He found it in Happy Valley, OR and quickly fell in love with the people and the folks that managed the city. He loved volunteering for the City of Happy Valley.
Bill loved sports, especially baseball. He loved collecting baseball and sports memorabilia, going to baseball games, and was quick to adopt the Portland Trailblazers as his basketball team of choice. Besides his love of sports, Bill loved to travel and he adopted his wife’s love of animals. He loved taking his beloved dog, Kingsley, on long walks through the Happy Valley Park, where true to his nature, met lots of Happy Valley neighbors and their dogs.
Bill is survived by Tomma, his beloved wife and best friend of 32 plus years. He is also survived by his five children, Mike Bersie and his wife Stacie, their 8 children; Lucinda Webb and her husband Dow, their two children; Don Hire and his wife Heather, their two children; Stephanie Morton and her son and Lisa Hire. Bill was the very proud of his 13 grandchildren. He is also survived by his mother, Marie and his step-father, Melvin Schubert and his beloved brother Richard Schubert and his wife Denise. Bill also leaves behind his loving dog Kingsley who misses his daily walks with his “Dad”. Bill was proceeded in death by his brother, Terry Bersie and his father William Edward Bersie.
Funeral services will be held at the Lincoln Memorial Park and Funeral Home Chapel on December 27, 2019 at 1:00 pm. A military ceremony will be held at the Willamette National Cemetery at 2:30 with a reception following the ceremony back at the funeral home with family and friends.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Friends of the Milwaukie Center, 5440 SE Kellogg Creek DR, Milwaukie, OR 97222, in memory of William A. Bersie. For information, please visit: http://ncprd.com/milwaukie-center
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