Jon Peter Berge

1935 - 2018

We are sad to announce the death of Dr. Jon Peter Berge, 82, on November 14, 2017, in Louisville, Colorado. He was born on February 4, 1935, in Madison, Wisconsin, the eldest son of Trygve Obert Berge and Martha (Pat) Johnson, both of Norwegian immigrant families. His early years were marked by the Great Depression and World War II, and his family moved frequently as a result of Trygve's military duties. He graduated from Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley in 1952, and attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he obtained his B.A. (1956), M.A. (1958) and Ph.D. (1964), all in Physics. He married Louise Holstein in 1959. Peter worked under Nobel Prize winner Luis Alvarez at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, where he participated in the development of the Bubble Chamber, and at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland, before accepting a permanent position at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois. He worked with the Collider Detector at Fermilab and was highly regarded for his skill in writing software used to control high energy physics experiments, including that which led to the discovery of the top quark in 1995. He retired from the lab in 2000. Peter lived in Batavia until 2007, when he moved to Louisville, Colorado, close to his family: Pat and Bob Muckle and Mark Berge, of Boulder, Bob and Melanie Muckle of Louisville, and Andrew and Michele Muckle of Superior. Peter was an active fencer and competed until the mid-1970s in fencing tournaments. He appreciated chess, good wine, fine dining, classical music, and history. He was an astounding writer of endless postcards, including, post-office permitting, beer coasters. He had many lifelong friends and was known as a generous host. He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother David. He is survived by his sisters Patricia and Judith, his brother Mark, his children Eric and Anna, and his granddaughter Frances. Peter was cremated and buried at Green Mountain Cemetery in Boulder, Colorado, on Friday, November 17, 2017. Donations in Peter's memory can be made to the causes he supported, including the World Wildlife Fund, the Nature Conservancy, Planned Parenthood, and the American Cancer Society.