The most exciting summer of my life was the summer of 1972, which I spent working on the Temple Mount Dig in Jerusalem with about 80 other AC Diggers. This is where I met Mary, because she and I were assigned to work in the same Dig "Hole" with a number of other AC students from all three campuses.
Photo below, L to R: Mary, me, Martha McKee McQueen; Patty Fields in back.
Our Hole leader was Ken Treybig. Dr. Ernest Martin taught the 3 credit Biblical Geography class most afternoons and took us on bus tours from the source of the of the Jordan River up north to the Red Sea down south. At the time, Richard Frankel served as Church rep and Jerusalem Office Manager with his wife Joyce, and they attended Sabbath services with us. Mr. Canvin was our cook from the Bricket Wood campus, and Myrtle Horn from Pasadena served as a sort of "Dean of Student Diggers" and "Mom". Dr. Binyamin Mazar with Hebrew University was in charge of the Dig site and visited from time to time, discussing with us the importance and value of many of the items we were finding as we dug through the dirt and sifted it into wheel barrows to be dumped over the hill. Some afternoons, we had free time and small groups of us would wander through vibrant "Old City" markets, or perhaps visit the Turkish baths.
Looking back on our work at the Dig, I think Mary served as a kind of stabilizing influence in our Hole. While most of the rest of us were only about 20 years old, Mary was older, wiser, and already had a teaching degree which she was using to teach at Imperial Schools in Pasadena. My memories of Mary were of a sweet, kind, gentle, encouraging, funny, joyful friend... and hard worker (Dig work was hard physical work which left us covered in dust and dirt each day).
During the 80's when I moved to live and work in Pasadena, Mary and I reconnected from time to time, and by then, she had married and become a mother. After that, we did not see each other for a number of years again until after I married Wil Berg and would come to southern CA every couple years to spend time with my husband's children and grandchildren. Then I would see Mary at UCG services in the old 7th Day Adventist church, which I think was in Eagle Rock. We always had fun chatting after services and catching up with each other's lives.
Like all of us, Mary's life had its ups and downs. She faced many challenges, but through it all she served as a modern "Proverbs 31 woman". With her many accomplishments, wit, wisdom, and compassion, she lived life with deep faith, determination, and integrity. May we all carry on even just a bit of her positive legacy in the years ahead.
Mary and I met in Jerusalem, and I look forward to seeing Mary again... in the NEW Jerusalem!
Wil (Wilbur) Berg (1959)
Susan Blumel-Berg here, wife of Wil Berg:
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TRIBUTE TO MARY BROKAW WILLIAMS:
The most exciting summer of my life was the summer of 1972, which I spent working on the Temple Mount Dig in Jerusalem with about 80 other AC Diggers. This is where I met Mary, because she and I were assigned to work in the same Dig "Hole" with a number of other AC students from all three campuses.
Photo below, L to R: Mary, me, Martha McKee McQueen; Patty Fields in back.
Our Hole leader was Ken Treybig. Dr. Ernest Martin taught the 3 credit Biblical Geography class most afternoons and took us on bus tours from the source of the of the Jordan River up north to the Red Sea down south. At the time, Richard Frankel served as Church rep and Jerusalem Office Manager with his wife Joyce, and they attended Sabbath services with us. Mr. Canvin was our cook from the Bricket Wood campus, and Myrtle Horn from Pasadena served as a sort of "Dean of Student Diggers" and "Mom". Dr. Binyamin Mazar with Hebrew University was in charge of the Dig site and visited from time to time, discussing with us the importance and value of many of the items we were finding as we dug through the dirt and sifted it into wheel barrows to be dumped over the hill. Some afternoons, we had free time and small groups of us would wander through vibrant "Old City" markets, or perhaps visit the Turkish baths.
Looking back on our work at the Dig, I think Mary served as a kind of stabilizing influence in our Hole. While most of the rest of us were only about 20 years old, Mary was older, wiser, and already had a teaching degree which she was using to teach at Imperial Schools in Pasadena. My memories of Mary were of a sweet, kind, gentle, encouraging, funny, joyful friend... and hard worker (Dig work was hard physical work which left us covered in dust and dirt each day).
During the 80's when I moved to live and work in Pasadena, Mary and I reconnected from time to time, and by then, she had married and become a mother. After that, we did not see each other for a number of years again until after I married Wil Berg and would come to southern CA every couple years to spend time with my husband's children and grandchildren. Then I would see Mary at UCG services in the old 7th Day Adventist church, which I think was in Eagle Rock. We always had fun chatting after services and catching up with each other's lives.
Like all of us, Mary's life had its ups and downs. She faced many challenges, but through it all she served as a modern "Proverbs 31 woman". With her many accomplishments, wit, wisdom, and compassion, she lived life with deep faith, determination, and integrity. May we all carry on even just a bit of her positive legacy in the years ahead.
Mary and I met in Jerusalem, and I look forward to seeing Mary again... in the NEW Jerusalem!