Elmer Berg, 86, had adventures on land, at sea

Elmer Berg, whose life included time on the gridiron as a pro-football player and time at sea and a Silver Star for his naval service in the Pacific, died Monday from complications related to Parkinson's disease. He was 86.

Mr. Berg, a Northwest native, was the son of John and Elida Berg, who immigrated from Sweden in the early 1900s.

He graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1938 with four varsity letters. After earning a degree at the University of Washington, where he was a quarterback, place-kicker and punter for the Huskies, he joined the Navy to fight in World War II.

"He wanted to go to war; he wanted to be active," said his daughter, Mary Cranny of Seattle.

In the Navy, Mr. Berg discovered the newly created Underwater Demolition Team (UDT), where he could put his swimming skills to good use.

As a member of UDT 12, he defused mines spotted by destroyers, located hazardous reefs before landings, and scouted beaches, said his son John Berg, a Seattle resident who has studied his father's military career.

Mr. Berg provided reconnaissance for the invasion of Iwo Jima, relaying information to Marines about where and how to land on the beach.

"All of those men who helped create that program were outstanding in their forethought about what our country needed from the program," Cranny said. "Without them, we wouldn't have been successful; there's just no way."

Mr. Berg was one of several men from the unit to be awarded a Silver Star, said John Berg.

After Mr. Berg left the Navy, the UDTs became the Navy SEALs, one of the armed forces' elite fighting units.

"He was the start of it. To be able to be part of that at the beginning, he must have been a pretty tough man," said John Berg.

After the war, Mr. Berg returned to Seattle and resumed his active lifestyle, joining the Tacoma Indians as a quarterback and kicker. When his football career ended, he took a job with the Watson-Hall Oil Co. (later McCall Oil), where he was the manager for 39 years.

He married the boss's daughter, Dorothy Hall, and started a family.

"My thoughts on Dad was that he was a servant — he had a servant's heart," said daughter Dorelie Gilbert of Seattle. "He was gentle in a very strong sense."

Mr. Berg's children remember wrestling with their father on the living-room floor, his doing the dinner dishes with their mother, and his independence.

And nothing was below him, Gilbert said, remembering that her father would empty his wastebasket at work even though he was the manager.

Mr. Berg rarely spoke of his military career, and when he did he was humble, said John Berg, though he would use his ability to hold his breath for up to three minutes to pretend to be dead or to play solitaire at the bottom of the pool.

Mr. Berg is survived by his five children, Cranny, Gilbert, John Berg, Nancy Sanders and Jim Berg, 15 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Woodland Park Presbyterian Church, 225 N. 70th St., Seattle. Remembrances may be sent to the church.

Brian Alexander: 425-745-7813 or balexander@seattletimes.com