Susan Berger Obituary

Susan Katherine Teffner Berger
Susan Katherine Teffner Berger, 82, passed away peacefully in Los Altos, California on October 28, 2024 surrounded by family. A private funeral Mass will be celebrated with family.
Susan was born in Manhattan, NY, to Gordon Bruce Teffner and Ann Patrician Teffner and grew up on Park Terrace East. She graduated high school from the Academy of the Sacred Heart of Mary. After earning her BA in History in 1964 from Manhattanville College, she married Edmond L. Berger at the Church of the Good Shepherd in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan. They met during her senior year of college. In their early years, they lived in Princeton, NJ, Hanover, NH, and Berkeley, CA, before settling on Dearborn Parkway in Downers Grove, IL where they raised their family. They relocated to California in 2018.
Susan worked at the Newcomers Assistance Office at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL, assisting postdoctoral fellows and other new arrivals and their families to get settled in the area and connected to the community. She was committed to volunteering, and gave her time to both DuPage County PADS and Sharing Connections, serving meals to the homeless and providing emotional and material support. Susan was active in the arts in the Chicagoland area, working as a docent at the Art Institute of Chicago, frequenting the Chicago Lyric Opera, and taking courses in the Botanical Arts. She was an avid quilter, active in the DuPage Textile Arts Guild, and an artist, creating beautiful botanical illustrations and crafting Christmas decorations. In the summers, she was a fixture tending rows and rows of vegetables at her Downers Grove community garden plot, and swimming laps at the Downers Grove Swim & Racquet Club. Susan also enjoyed visiting the Morton Arboretum. She was a long-time parishioner of Divine Savior Parish in Downers Grove.
Susan loved traveling, both domestically and in Europe and Asia. She and her family lived abroad at several different times in Switzerland and France while Ed was working at CERN outside of Geneva. During this time, she enjoyed both hiking and skiing in the Jura Mountains and the French Alps. Susan and Ed also spent time in the summer and winter in Aspen, CO, where they similarly enjoyed mountain sports. She also loved cycling on bicycle trips in northern Wisconsin.
Susan is survived by her husband, Edmond L. Berger of Los Altos, CA, her children Bruce (Francesca) of Saratoga, CA, Catherine (Ivo Dujmovic) of Redwood City, CA, and Stephen (Page), of Darien, CT, as well as eight grandchildren, Katherine and Theresa Berger of Saratoga, Max, Alexander, and Sara Dujmovic of Redwood City, and Finnegan, Emma June, and Louisa Berger of Darien, CT.