Dana Fenton Berg

1951 – 2015

Dana Fenton Berg passed away peacefully at her home on Bainbridge Island, surrounded by her family and friends. She leaves behind a community that will be forever grateful she chose to call it home.

Dana was born in Seattle in 1951, one of four daughters of Nancy (Griffiths) and Addison Fenton. The family moved from Mercer Island to Bainbridge Island in 1967, just in time for Dana to ask her Bainbridge High School classmate Bart Berg to the fall 1968 Tolo.

After graduating from BHS, Dana attended the University of Denver for a short time before switching to Washington State University where Bart was enrolled. Dana graduated with a bachelor in interior design that she quickly put to use by opening her own home furnishings and decorating store. She operated Dana’s Showhouse in several locations in downtown Bainbridge for thirty years before selling it to long-time business associates. The store is a still a mainstay on Winslow Way under the original name.

Bart and Dana were married in 1972 and raised their three children – Alexandra, Elizabeth, and Christian – in various homes around the island before building Blackberry Hill Farm, with a pond and rolling pastures, which became the site of family weddings, a bicycle bed & breakfast, and countless parties and community gatherings. To preserve the forested property, which includes a stream corridor, Bart and Dana granted a conservation easement on 7.5 acres to the Bainbridge Island Land Trust.

Dana’s many passions, which her friends will attest were infectious, included creating a vibrant downtown and making Bainbridge a safer place to live and work, with non-motorized transportation and slower speed limits a focus. She was part of the Bainbridge Island Quarterly Arts Walk committee and a board member of Team Winslow (now Bainbridge Island Downtown Association), where one of her most visible projects was the Parisian-inspired light swags that hang above Winslow Way during the Holidays.

But Dana is best remembered around the island for her tireless promotion of bicycling and bicycle safety. Her twelve years as a founding board member of the Squeaky Wheels bike advocacy non-profit resulted in such annual events as ‘Bike for Pie,’ which rewards cyclists with all-you-can-eat pie after the ride, and the Bike to School and Work Day. Dana was also instrumental in creating a number of bike trails on the island, including the bike paths through the high school and the Mandus Olson bike trail. In the last few years she formed Go Bainbridge, affiliated with Sustainable Bainbridge, to promote road and bike safety.

Dana and Bart, along with friends and children, traveled by bike in Europe, fully loaded with tents and pots and pans, on many wonderful trips in many countries. Dana’s bicycle sported a sign that said “Bicycle for Peace” in seven languages.

She was always planning adventures for family and friends, including an eight-month family tour of Europe, with the kids homeschooled along the way. However, she once said in an interview, “Anytime I go on vacation, I am reminded upon my return that I have never seen another community where I would like to live as much as Bainbridge.”

Upon retiring, she loved taking care of her granddaughters Haley and Maya.

Dana’s many friends will miss her boundless enthusiasm for any new adventure, her laughter, and her whimsically elegant style, which often included a nod towards her family’s Norwegian heritage. Dana always had the time, energy, spirit, and love to give to any one of a hundred projects, initiatives, ideas, and ways to make a positive difference. She told a friend, “Give a person just one idea, one small thing that they can really do, and you’ve played a part in changing the world.” She was her own best example.

Dana is survived by her husband Bart; her children Alexandra (Sam and granddaughter Maya CharlesBerg), Elizabeth (Charlie and granddaughter Haley June Kubin), and Christian (Meghan); sisters Christy (John) Ridgeway, Jan Fenton (Tim Calvert), and Barb Schaumberg; many nieces and nephews and many friends.

A celebration of her life will be at the family home August 9 at 5 pm

Please send donations in her memory to SqueakyWheels.org