Main navigation | Main content
October 1, 2002
Most people who have had a long and distinguished career as a mathematician and teacher would be satisfied with their accomplishments. Gerald (Jerry) Bergum was not most people. In his early fifties, he became a student again, returning to the University of Minnesota to pursue graduate work in Computer Science. Shortly thereafter, he took on the task of leading the Computer Science Department at South Dakota State University. Now in retirement, Jerry, along with his wife Shirley Bergum, have continued to make a difference by establishing the Gerald and Shirley Bergum Scholarship Endowment Fund in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota.
Jerry was born in Saint Paul where he also attended elementary school and a final year of high school. In between he attended school in Indiana. After completing high school, he enrolled in St. Thomas College. Then, the start of the Korean War prompted him to withdraw from his studies and enlist in the Air Force. In 1954, after four years in the Air Force, he was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant, and he returned to higher education, this time at the University of Minnesota where he earned a B.S. in Mathematics in 1958.
After three years of teaching high school students math and physics, Jerry was awarded an NSF fellowship for graduate study in mathematics at the University of Notre Dame. Following the completion of his studies for a Master's degree, he started his career in higher education at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington in 1962. He took a leave of absence after three years to pursue a Ph.D. in mathematics from Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. He returned to full time work at Gonzaga in 1968, completing his dissertation in 1969.
Shirley Bergum was born in Iowa but grew up in Minnesota. She and Gerald were married in 1951. Between 1952 and 1963, they had nine children, six girls and three boys. In 1968, they became foster parents for a one-year-old boy. In 1970 the Bergums decided that they wanted to move back to the Midwest. In order to keep their foster son, by then loved dearly by the entire family, they had to adopt him. This lengthy, complex procedure was finally completed in 1974. In 1970, they moved to Brookings, South Dakota, where Jerry took a position in the Mathematics Department at South Dakota State University. The Mathematics and Electrical Engineering faculty at SDSU began teaching computer science courses in 1974.
Over time a group of the faculty thought that the University should offer a degree in computer science. Some thought that a combination of mostly mathematics courses and programming language courses would be sufficient. Jerry disagreed, being sure that there was more to computer science. In 1984, he returned to the University of Minnesota to become a graduate student again, this time in computer science, so that he could find out what the field was all about. Here he found out that he had been correct. With a much greater knowledge of the field, he returned to SDSU in 1985 as temporary head. In 1987 he was asked to be the first permanent head of the department, a position he kept until he retired on June 30, 2000.
Dr. Bergum was also active professionally, serving as the editor of the Fibonacci Quarterly, an international mathematics journal, publishing over sixty articles in seven different refereed journals, and authoring and/or editing seven mathematics books. He was active in the Mathematical Association of America, becoming the first person from South Dakota to ever become the President, as well as Governor, of the North Central Section of the Mathematical Association of America. In 1994, he was the first person from the North Central Section to be awarded the certificate of meritorious service.
Gerald and Shirley Bergum have generously decided to support the University of Minnesota and in particular the Department of Computer Science and Engineering by establishing a testamentary bequest to provide endowed scholarships to students of academic merit. Making a gift of an endowment is a meaningful way to make a long lasting impact on the University of Minnesota and those it serves. Our heartfelt thanks to them both!
--Bobbie Othmer
Soundbyte, 2002
Please e-mail suggested news and event items to:
