Former North Coast Assemblymember Patty Berg, the founding executive director of the Area 1 Agency on Aging, who spearheaded the state’s first-of-its-kind master plan on aging, has died. She was 82.
Berg, best known for her six years serving the North Coast in the California Assembly, was a fierce advocate for seniors and dedicated much of her adult life to improving life on the North Coast, working on everything from school curriculum to protecting health care access.
“Saddened to hear that former Assemblymember Patty Berg passed away,” North Coast state Sen. Mike McGuire posted to social media. “The North Coast was fortunate to have a champion like Assemblymember Berg. … She’ll be missed dearly.”
Born in Seattle, Berg moved to Humboldt County in 1974 with her husband, Patrick Murphy, who was a psychiatrist. She was influential in the startup of the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in 1975 and worked in the county Public Health Department, where she helped develop the state’s first comprehensive K-12 family life and sex education curriculum for public schools, which later became a national model.
She became the founding executive director of the Area 1 Agency on Aging in 1980 and ran the organization for nearly two decades, helping grow it from a staff of four to more than 25, with dozens of programs serving seniors in Humboldt and Del Norte counties. In 1999, she decided to run for the state Assembly, taking office in 2002 and serving three terms until term limits forced her from office in 2008. She said one of her proudest accomplishments in office was heading efforts to publish a state master plan on aging in 2006 — Building an Aging Agenda for the 21st Century — that outlined the state’s demographic shift toward a grayer population and identified policy priorities to help seniors.
Berg is also credited with helping to found CHOICES, Humboldt County’s first pro-choice political action committee, in 1982. Since retiring from the Assembly, Berg has also worked behind the scenes to improve health care and skilled nursing options on the North Coast.
Berg’s loved ones put together an obituary, which you can find here. And if you have any Patty Berg memories you’d like to share, please add them in the comments below or send them to editor@northcoastjournal.com.
This article appears in Community Connection.
I was patty’s scheduler and she married my brother on the Assembly balcony.
LA times partial article….
Assemblywoman Patty Berg, a Eureka Democrat, officiated at the first gay marriage at the state Capitol in Sacramento.
On a white-columned balcony of the ornate Assembly chamber, Berg joined William Nilva, 57, and Richard Saxton, 53, in matrimony.
“I pronounce you married for as long as you both shall live,” Berg intoned before a small gathering of the couple’s family and friends. “William, you may now kiss Richard.”
The Sacramento couple have been together 20 years, and Saxton, a psychiatrist, said there was no question that they would get married when the California Supreme Court cleared the way.
“We thought it was important for new generations who need the protection,” he said.
Nilva, looking happily at his partner minutes before the ceremony, took a more down-to-earth approach.
“He’s a doctor,” Nilva said. “Didn’t your mother tell you to marry a doctor?”