(Thank you to Kathy Ackerman Wilczek for informing us of Dennis and this Boston Globe Article)

DENNIS BERGIN, 36; SOLO SAILOR, PRESUMED DROWNED OFF ALASKA

Article from: The Boston Globe Article date: February 20, 1987 Author: Carol Beggy,

 

When Dennis Bergin, 36, left port in his 27-foot sailboat "Desiderata" in Seward, Alaska, on Sept. 20, he expected to finish his 3,500-mile solo journey to Hawaii within a month.

 

But four days later, Mr. Bergin, a resident of Bethel, Alaska, and formerly of Needham, hit a storm in the Gulf of Alaska and has been lost at sea since. He is presumed drowned.

 

Born in Needham, Mr. Bergin began sailing when he was 14. His father, Joseph Bergin of Needham, said his son had dreamed for years of making the trip.

 

After some mechanical trouble with the boat's automatic pilot had forced Mr. Bergin to return to port in early September, he started off again on Sept. 20.

 

Two days later Mr. Bergin had radio contact with an ocean liner but within two days he was in the middle of the storm and has been missing since. The Coast Guard conducted a search, but it was called off after a month.

 

Mr. Bergin was scheduled to arrive in Hawaii on Nov. 15, and was planning to sail to Australia to see the America's Cup races.

 

His father told the Needham Times it is impossible for him to have his son declared legally dead, but the family has no hope he will be found.

 

"It's been very difficult," Bergin said in yesterday's Times. "We're over the worst of it -- the shock of finding out. We just have to presume he's gone. There's no way he'll turn up."

 

Mr. Bergin attended St. Joseph's School and was a 1968 graduate of Needham High School. He attended the University of Vermont and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

 

He joined the Army in 1971 and attended the airborne school at Fort Benning, Ga. Following graduation from the ranger course, Mr. Bergin was assigned to the Alaskan Ranger Group, where he was a member of the Fort Richardson parachute team and made more than 300 jumps.

 

After his discharge from the Army, Mr. Bergin stayed in Alaska as a bush pilot and also taught stunt flying. In 1975 he rode a motorcycle from Alaska to Needham and back again.

 

"He was an adventurer," his father said. "He lived on the edge with everything he did."

 

In addition to his father, Mr. Bergin leaves his mother, Isabel (Kelleher); a sister, Sheila Bergin Goss of Wolcott, Vt.; and a brother, Patrick Bergin of Stowe, Vt.

 

A private memorial Mass will be said in Stowe.