Allan R Bergan

Allan Richard Bergan passed away at his home in Palm Desert, CA on July 15, 2019. He was born into the Baby Boom on August 14, 1947 to Richard C. and Audrey (Odegaard) Bergan in Roseau MN.

Childhood in Roseau at that time was a Norman Rockwell painting (like the one he won on a T.V. game show called Las Vegas Gambit).  Saturday mornings were highlighted by playing hockey on Emil Nelson’s sponsored team (strategy sessions involved a hamburger with him in Nelson’s Cafe’). The summers were full of baseball, and burning up the sidewalks with his tricycle/bicycle and his interest in basketball grew right along with his height. Those were his childhood diversions, because he DID have to go to school, too.

But, when he met his first golf club he was smitten by the sport, caddying until he was ready to play. As he learned, he proudly told his mom his score, and she was devastated that he couldn’t get closer to 100 (totally true). He was a trooper with his “kid jobs” (paper routes, shoveling at the church, working at Reese’s) if they didn’t interfere with golfing.

He graduated from Roseau High School in 1965 and began college at Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, transferred to Moorhead State where he received a degree in Education, and taught in area schools. But golf was like a magnet, and by the mid-70’s California’s burgeoning golf industry proved too tempting to ignore. The desert was alive with golf courses and communities popping up everywhere - Nirvana for golfers. Realizing he needed a job, he checked out Palm Springs and found his niche at one of the new golf estates, “Ironwood”. It had been built/named by Al’s lifetime idol, Mr. Arnold Palmer. He was in the presence of “The King” and was given the opportunity to work at Ironwood. After a few years there, he enjoyed “working” among the many courses of the “golf industry” in and around Palm Springs CA. Al retired several years ago, if it is possible to retire from golfing.

Allan was preceded in death by his parents and several aunts and uncles.

He is survived by Cindy Townsend; one sister, Ruth Ann (Dwight) Thompson of Grand Forks, ND; one brother, Paul (Aileen) Bergan of Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada; four nephews, Aaron (Alita) Bergan, Kelly (Julie) Bergan, Steven (Katrina) Thompson, and Samuel Thompson; as well as aunts, Phyllis Odegaard, Lois Markstrom, and Sharon Fugleberg all of Thief River Falls, MN.

Say not in grief that he is no more

but say in thankfulness that he was.

A death is not the extinguishing of a light,

but the putting out of the lamp

because the dawn has come.

Rabindranath Tagore

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