Bill Bergquist Memorial Service
PROGRAM
January 10 1999 Washington D.C
and
January 30, 1999 Portland Oregon
I. Opening Thoughts - Paul Bitter
II. EULOGY - Friends of Bill
III. REMEMBRANCES - FRIENDS OF BILL
IV. CONCLUDING REMARKS - Friends of Bill
A Life Worth Living
WILLIAM BERGQUIST
Born on December 13, 1946 in Chicago, Bill died on January 1, 1999, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, where he was working for the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs. Bill will be dearly missed by his friends, the international humanitarian and development community and the global community of the Hash House Harriers.
Bill's lifework was devoted to human service in the international community. After earning a Masters in Public Health from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelors in Political Science from Arizona State University, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Afghanistan from 1972-1974. His language fluency included Bahasa Malaysia and Indonesia, Farsi and French. His international work included the New Transcentury Foundation rural development project from 1979 to 1982 and work with Save the Children Foundation from 1983 through 1987 in Indonesia.
In 1988, he consulted on various health and development programs in Nigeria, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Thailand. In 1990, he worked for the UN in Herat, Afghanistan coordinating food relief and health assistance. From 1991-1993 he worked for the Catholic Relief Services in the US, North Africa and Somalia. Bill joined the United Nation's in 1993 and served in Somalia until sometime in 1995. In 1996 he returned to the UN and went to Afghanistan until his re-assignment to Tajikistan.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost