Razel Ann Kallberg

1947 - 2020

BORN

1947

DIED

2020

About

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Razel Kallberg Obituary

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine - Razel Ann (Wittels) Kallberg was born on June 3, 1947 in New York, N.Y. As a toddler, she moved to Hopewell Junction, N.Y., north of New York City with her family, where she spent her youth and attended school through high school.

Razel started school in a one-room school house and graduated from the Roy C. Ketchum High School in Wappingers, N.Y. in June 1964. She then entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., as one of around 45 women in a class of approximately 950 students. She graduated with the MIT Class of 1968 in June 1968 with a Bachelor of Science Degree and remained at MIT to earn her Master of Science Degree in 1969. Razel studied geology and worked briefly as a geologist. However, her real love was teaching and she taught high school science, math and physics in Kittery, Maine, Durham, N.H., and at the Berwick Academy in South Berwick, Maine where she spent 22 years of her career and retired from teaching in 2002.

Razel was a talented and creative person. She loved music and theater. She played the piano and she produced student theater productions during her career at Berwick Academy. She was loved sewing and needlepoint and she was an avid ballroom dancer.

Razel married her husband Keith, also a member of MIT Class of 1968. They met in 1966 and were married in 1969. Razel was a Navy wife during Keith's 30 year-long naval career and an office manager for his consulting business until she retired in 2018. She is survived by her husband Keith; her son Jarrod Kallberg; her daughter Chava Kallberg; daughter-in-law Barbara Thompson; granddaughter Grace Kallberg; sisters Jill and Nedda Wittels; and other extended family members.

Razel passed away peacefully at the Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.H., with family at her side on Friday, July 31, 2020.

Arrangements are under the direction of Purdy Funeral Service; to sign our online guestbook, please go to www.purdyfuneralservice.com.

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Foster's Daily Democrat from Aug. 14 to Aug. 17, 2020.

Memories and Condolences
for Razel Kallberg

4 Entries

Alician (Lissy) Quinlan

October 19, 2020

Razel was a lovely, beloved person. My heartfelt sympathies to Razel's family and friends for their great loss.

Razel was my dorm roommate at MIT during our Freshman Year 1964/1965. Here's a story that illustrates her warm-hearted nature and its enduring impact. After Christmas Break, Razel smuggled into our dorm room a very young puppy as a gift to me. Her family dog was its mother. It was born around Thanksgiving. We were terrified our very strict battle-ax dorm-manager Mrs L-J would discover our contraband because the puppy cried and peed on the floor morning, noon, and night. That was during final exam study period, and as we studied for our physics final, we came up with the perfect name for the puppy. That course was titled: Physics - A New Introductory Course. The acronym for that course became the puppy's name: PANIC. That name also commemorated our state of mind at the time because we were facing our first final exams at MIT. We soon had to call my parents to come rescue us from PANIC - the puppy kind - before Mrs L-J's wrath descended upon us. Now, fast-forward a few years. One night during summer, PANIC, my parents, my brothers, and I went out for pizza in my hometown. As soon as Dad stopped the car, PANIC jumped out a car window and ran into the pizza place, with Dad hot on his heels yelling, "PANIC! PANIC! PANIC!" We thought it was hilarious. Dad didn't. No one else did either until we told them the story of Razel's gift. PANIC became my parents' fourth child.

Zack Harmon

August 22, 2020

I was privileged to have Mrs. Kallberg as a teacher at Berwick Academy. I only had her as a teacher for a year, but I got to know her best from being in drama and musical productions. Mrs. Kallberg was such an important part of those activities and she had so much energy to bring to the plays. She had a hand in everything from set designs and crafting, to helping us all with lines and rehearsals, costuming, make up, and maybe most importantly reducing our stress and reinforcing her confidence in us that we could do it!! My heartfelt sympathy to the Kallberg family, I want you to know that as a 53-year old I treasure my Berwick memories and can't believe how lucky I was to have been taught not only academics but life lessons by people as wonderful as Mrs. Kallberg - she was truly devoted to making her students' lives better!!

Elizabeth Sanborn

August 19, 2020

My condolences go out to Keith and his family. I met Razel while visiting my husband at BF. She was a wonder then and it was there that I learned she was a very special person.

Denys Draper

August 14, 2020

Not only a teacher of mine but also a good friend. Was going to visit her when COVID-19 hit. I will treasure her friendship always.

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