Dr. Blake Berven

Dr. Blake Berven, a Klamath Falls physician who died at age 73 on Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016, will be best remembered for his 40-plus years serving the medical needs of the community. Blake was born in La Crosse, Wis., in 1943, and earned his residency at the University of Michigan. After receiving his medical degree, he moved with his family to Klamath Falls, Ore., where he was an internist in private practice and later became a well-known specialist in geriatrics and infectious disease. He most recently worked at Sky Lakes Medical Center as a hospitalist, enjoying many teaching opportunities and consultative service. Some of the most rewarding challenges of his long career in medicine and in service to his patients were chairing the Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee for Sky Lakes Medical Center, co-directing the Infectious Disease Committee and being Master of Ceremonies for the Annual Infectious Disease Conference. He also took great pride, through the OHSU Education & Research Program, in teaching the next generation of doctors to be kind, compassionate masters of their craft. But if you were to ask him, he would have said his greatest satisfaction in life truly was providing superior care and service to his patients. In addition to caring deeply for the people and community he served for more than 40 years, Blake had a deep love for Klamath Falls and for the beauty of the Basin. He would often be spotted walking the trails of Moore Mountain with his daughter, Gwen, and her dog, Milo, or zipping across Klamath Lake, his kids flailing behind his boat as they tried out their water skis. Blake was also an avid alpine skier, which meant winter weekends at Mt. Bachelor, teaching first his kids, and then his wife Nancy, to ski. During her lessons, Nancy initially thought "when do we have fun?" but with Blake's help they all eventually got pretty good… enough so that some of them would follow Blake down the Black Diamond runs, mastering moguls with only a few bruises and sprains to show for it. Other fun times for Blake were the annual fishing pilgrimages to Brookings, where he and his close friends, many of them local physicians, would take their boats out on the big waves to come back with fresh salmon for a delicious fish fry. There were also many family trips to Harris Beach, with the countless hilarious hours devoted to trying to back the camper into the small parking spot or poorly setting up the tents, walking a kid in the pitch black middle of the night to the bathrooms because they just had to go, scrambling up the rock cliffs behind the kids because they just had to climb them, and then carrying them down those same rocks because they were too scared to get down themselves, and braving the freezing waves of the Pacific Ocean because, again, those kids… they just had to go swimming even if it meant losing all feeling in their feet and hands. Other adventure in the outdoors included the time Blake and Nancy accidentally ended up walking the entire 24 miles around Waldo Lake, finally making it safely back to their campsite late at night. Blake also enjoyed traveling, often flying with Nancy to big cities to attend conferences as a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, or traveling for fun with friends and family to Hawaii during the rainy season (oops who knew?), and even taking the long, long flight to Australia to tour healthcare facilities and learn about the National Health System. Other travel highlights were the yearly trips to Philadelphia with Gwen to see his other daughter Shawn and the grandkids, exploring the city and sampling as many corned beef sandwiches and Philly cheesesteaks as possible, then going with his sister Pam to visit old family sites in Houston, Minn., where they spent many summers with their grandparents when they were children. Christmas was a special time for Blake, not only because it was always a reminder of his and Nancy's Christmas Day wedding, but because he got to bring out the model trains and set them up around the tree for the grandkids to watch (or at least he said it was for the grandkids… I think it was really a chance for him to play with them himself). While Blake might not be remembered for his flair in dressing… his favorite color being beige, which was evident in the way he dressed, the cars he bought and the house he painted, he will be remembered as someone who had time for everyone, no matter the need, and was kind and generous to all he met. Blake is survived by his wife, Nancy; his children, Shawn, Gwen, Mike, Ric, Angie & Allen; grandchildren, Mitchell, Abigail, Eli, Zach, Ian, Marlie Star, Asher Skye, Riley & Wyatt; honorary grandchildren, Nolan, Gracie and Karli; his mother, Fran; siblings, Pam and Wynn; former spouse, Marilyn Pile; mother-in-law, Edna Hunnicutt; and numerous nephews and nieces. A memorial will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 8, 2016, at Bible Baptist Ministries, 4849 S. 6th St, Klamath Falls, OR 97603.