Sarah Berg

“I have seafoam in my veins, I understand the language of waves.”

And one may suspect that was true of Sarah Duncan Berg (nee, Buchanan) who passed away on October 30 at the age of 76.

Sarah always felt that her greatest and most joyous achievement was her teaching career, which lasted 35 years.

For many of those years, she taught in the public-school system of Indianapolis, Indiana, where she was born and raised.

After her graduation from Morehead State University, Sarah went on to teach minority education in Indiana and later in Montana, New Mexico, and California.

Teaching was her true passion and Sarah never tired of working with disadvantaged children, all of whom were from inner city Indianapolis, the Crow Indian Nation in Pryor, Montana, farm workers children in Watsonville, California, and many migrant children in her final home of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Her life changed dramatically in 1993 when she came across a book, ‘Light of the Feather’ by the late author and educator, Mick Fedullo.

After reading the book, she contacted Fedullo and was invited to spend time on the Crow Indian Nation, where she spent a summer, working at Pryor Public Schools. This is where she met her future husband Jeff, then the Postmaster in Pryor.  

After returning to Indiana, she became determined to move west, young woman, move west.

She did so in the winter of 1995, arriving in Billings, Montana with only a carful of belongings and a strong desire to have a new beginning.

Sarah worked briefly for the Billings school system and at the St. Labre Indian School in Ashland, Mont., before accepting a teaching position in the Santa Fe, NM school system.

After several years in Santa Fe, she moved to California, teaching in Watsonville, before moving to Las Cruces, NM, where she taught for several years before retiring with a gentle sigh of relief. On January 2, 1999, she married Jeff in Watsonville.

Her retirement in Santa Fe was well spent, loving her husband, her home and four critters, all animal shelter adoptee’s, who all loved her deeply.

Sarah was an intelligent, beautiful, and innovative woman, a loving and gentle wife to husband Jeff and a source of light, strength and inspiration to her daughter, Heather Cowan, of Seattle.

She is survived by her husband, her daughter, her sister, Susan a resident of Cincinnati, a cousin, Tom Willis of Illinois, several nieces and grand nieces, and a nephew.

“I’ve joyously experienced being in this world and I hope my life brought light into a world of darkness”, she once said.

We are certain that she brought light into the hearts and minds of her many students and especially to her husband of 21 years.

Donations to the Santa Fe Animal Shelter, 100 Caja del Rio Rd., Santa Fe, NM 87507.