Kate Berman Memorial and Celebration of Life
August 28, 2021 ✦ 10:00 am Chapel of the Holy Spirit Breck School
Kate Berman Memorial and Celebration of Life August 28, 2021 ✦ 10:00 am
Prelude Music Jeffrey Patry | Pianist & Organist
Welcome Alexis Kent | Breck School Chaplain
Opening Prayer | From “The Gardener,” by Rabindranath Tagore Reader: Susie Preston
Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet. Let it not be a death but completeness. Let love melt into memory and pain into songs. Let the flight through the sky end in the folding of the wings for the nest. Let the last touch of your hands be gentle like the flower of the night. Stand still, O Beautiful End, for a moment and say your last words in silence. I bow to you and hold up my lamp to light you on your way.
Reading | A Litany of Remembrance Verses read by LuChin Mischke; responses read by all.
Verse: All: Verse: All: Verse: All: Verse: All: Verse: All: Verse: All:
In the rising of the sun and in its going down We remember her In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter, We remember her In the opening of buds and in the rebirth of spring, We remember her In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer, We remember her In the rustling of leaves and in the beauty of autumn, We remember her In the beginning of the year and when it ends We remember her -2-
Verse: All: Verse: All: Verse: All: Verse: All:
When we are weary and in need of strength, We remember her When we are lost and sick at heart, We remember her When we have joys we yearn to share, We remember her So long as we live, she too shall live, As we remember her. Amen.
Reflection | Pixie Martin
Poem | “All is Well,” by Henry Scott-Holland Reader: Kathleen Hurt
Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name, Speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone, Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me and if you want to, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was, Let it be spoken without effect, Without the trace of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was; There is unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am waiting for you, for an interval, Somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well. -3-
Reflection | Ginny Cassidy
“Meditation” from Thais Elizabeth Berman, violin; Jeffrey Patry, piano Jules Massenet, composer
Reflection | Elena Berman
Reading First Corinthians 13:4-8 Readers: Sonali Mehta and Anita Mehta
If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
Reflection | Max Berman -4-
Reading Prayer of St. Francis Reader: Alexis Kent Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
Reflection | Art Berman
Video Reflection | Photos from Kate’s life
Closing Prayer Hebrew Prayer for the soul Reader: Alexis Kent
O merciful God who dwells in the heavens, Grant final rest in your sheltering presence Among the heights of the holy and pure Like the stars of the sky they endure To the soul of Kate who has passed on, May she live in paradise in life everlasting. Master of mercy, Hold her in your embrace for eternity, And bind up her life and her memory with our own. God is now her home. And so may she rest in peace.
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Kate’s Obituary (as it appeared in the Star Tribune on April 12, 2020) Kate Berman, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, passed away of an apparent heart attack on April 8 at her home. She was 61 years old. Kate was born on February 5, 1959 in New Hartford, New York, to Paul and Mary Frances Mullin. Kate grew up in Florida and Michigan. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service at Georgetown University and her MBA degree at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. She was a doctoral candidate at the University of St. Thomas at the time of her death.
education, social justice, and improved opportunities for girls and women. She was also actively involved in Minneapolis’ Catholic community as a member of the Basilica of St. Mary’s. Kate was a beloved mentor to so many. She is remembered for being unfailingly kind, a patient listener, and dedicated to supporting others’ success. She was a servant leader who prioritized helping others to achieve their goals, while often subordinating her own ambitions.
Kate and her husband, Art, met at a bus stop in Washington D.C. shortly after she graduated from college. They then had a decades-long, good-natured argument about who picked up whom. From that first bus ride together, a loving relationship bloomed that lasted nearly forty years. They were married on the campus of Georgetown University two years after that fateful meeting. They lived in Washington D.C., New York City, New Jersey, and, for the past seventeen years, in Minnesota. They have three children: Max (27), Elena (20), and Elizabeth (18). Kate was a successful businesswoman in New York City for over a decade after receiving her MBA. She specialized in corporate strategy at the consulting firm A.T. Kearney, where she advised companies in the health care, pharmaceuticals, and financial services industries. She also worked for J.P. Morgan Chase Bank. Kate became a full-time mom after the birth of her second child, Elena. Shortly after her third child, Elizabeth, was born, Kate and Art moved to Minnesota, where they have resided ever since. Kate re-entered the work force in recent years. At the time of her death she was the Executive Director of the think2perform RESEARCH INSTITUTE and a doctoral candidate in Organizational Development. Her research interests were moral and authentic leadership. Kate was a dedicated and highly engaged community member her entire adult life. From her early days tutoring in the Washington D.C. public schools, to supporting victims’ rights after 9/11, to actively volunteering for two decades at her children’s schools, to most recently being Board of Directors Chair at the YWCA of Minneapolis, she was always a strong leader and fierce advocate for
Kate was also the ultimate mom and a loving wife. Her first priority was nurturing her three children’s education, growth and development. She was a role model in the family household: compassionate, thoughtful, courageous, resilient, principled, and hard-working. She had a gift for supporting with kindness while constantly encouraging all of us to learn and grow. She taught her children the values of resilience, compassion, helping others, and contributing to our community through both her words and her deeds. She encouraged her children to fully develop themselves in many ways, and she was a dedicated soccer, hockey, music, and mock trial mom. Kate instilled a love for travel in her family. Annual national park vacations were a family staple, as were summer weeks spent at Suzuki Music Camp in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. She loved supporting arts organizations, and was a regular patron at art museums, opera and orchestral concerts. She was also an accomplished marathon runner, completing over a dozen races, including the Boston Marathon twice. She was training for the YWCA’s triathlon at the time of her death. She is survived by her husband, Art, and three children. Kate was deeply loved and she will be missed. Due to current social distancing requirements, we are not able to hold a memorial service at this time. However, we will honor Kate’s memory with a service in the future, when we are all able to gather, whenever that may be. In the meantime, if you would like, a memorial contribution in Kate’s honor to the YWCA of Minneapolis would be humbly and greatly appreciated.
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thank you from the bermans Dear Friends of Kate, Thank you for joining us today, whether in-person or virtually, to remember and celebrate Kate. It has been a difficult year for everyone. We are particularly grateful for the outpouring of support following Kate’s tragic, untimely passing last April, and for the sustained kindness that so many have given us. For the past seventeen months everyone’s life was disrupted, and all experienced trauma, yet so many were there to help us when we most needed it. We could not have made it through this period without your support. First among the many we want to thank are our own family and extended family—Art’s incredibly kind siblings and the children’s super-duper aunts and uncles: Laura, Henry, Linda, and George; and our cousins, nieces, and nephews. You have all been so great in reaching out, often and with such kindness, and making us feel loved and supported. You still do it regularly, role modeling what family means. How lucky we are to be Bermans. To our newest family members, the Mehtas, you set the standard for being welcoming and giving, extending a bottomless well of kindness and support. You always have, and we can never thank you enough. The entire Breck School community, one that Kate loved being a part of, has been amazing—there are so many of you, and you are supportive in so many ways. Meals, letters, cards, calls, texts, a candlelight vigil, walks around the lake, and so much more. We heard from parents, students, alumni, faculty, staff, administrators, coaches. Most of our closest friends are (or were) inside this community. You have all given us so much, and continue to. Thank you, too, for graciously hosting this event. Special thanks to Alexis Kent, Joe Ginsburg, Karyl Rice, and Sue Bydlon for your help. Kate was so happy to be a member of the YWCA community. She talked about you all the time, and it really lifted her up. She was so proud of your work, and to be a leader in your organization. You all reached out immediately with care, kindness and overwhelming support. We will always be a YWCA family. To Kate’s running friends from Orono and the old Northwest group, you have all been wonderful. You can’t imagine how much Kate appreciated the gifts of friendship with you. She had countless treasured memories, and so much love for all of you. We do too. To Kate’s colleagues and friends at Think2Perform, Kate was so grateful for your friendship, encouragement, collaboration, inspiration, trust, and mentoring support. To Art’s True North discussion group, I am so fortunate for our friendships, for your unflagging support, and for the safe harbor of kindness, care, and engaging conversation that we regularly have. There are so many more of you in our community who have gone above and beyond for us, and in so many ways—THANK YOU! We are so grateful. With love, The Berman Family
Kate Berman Memorial Service Live Stream breck.link/KateBerman
Online version of the printed program breck.link/KateProgram
Online Guest Book If you would like to leave a note or a memory for the Berman family, please do so using our online guest book: breck.link/guestbook
Special thanks to Henry and Linda Berman for their donation of flowers for today’s service.
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