‘Doc Drop’ raises money in memory of a ‘big kid’
Friends gather in memory of David K. Berger
The Daily Mail
Aug. 10, 2009

The memory of Dr. David K. Berger was honored Sunday through a fundraiser at Thunderhart at Sunny Hill, during which 180 golf balls were dropped from a helicopter at a target painted on the course’s driving range.

The “Doc Drop” proceeds, which totaled $1,800, will be donated by the club to the Berger Memorial Fund, which is raising money toward the construction of an educational children’s play area at the Gouverneur Healthcare Services hospital, in Manhattan.

The play area will be in the hospital’s new pediatric wing to be completed in the next two years. The fund hopes to raise $50,000 through the drop and future events.

Berger served as the hospital’s Chief of Pediatrics from 1981 until 1998. He began practicing pediatric medicine in 1979, and also wrote papers about child abuse and adolescent care.

Friends and family members said Berger, who died of liver cancer last year, would have loved Sunday’s unique event.

“He was a like this big kid,” said Beth Rosenthal, Berger’s widow.

Rosenthal said her husband had loved life, loved to help others and loved children. The two met during the 1970s, when Berger worked at a free clinic for migrant workers in Long Island and married in the 1980s.

Rosenthal estimated her husband had treated hundreds of thousands of children during his career, some of whom kept in touch as they grew older and brought their own children to see him.

She said he began playing golf once he began working in New York City. Rosenthal said Berger continued to make the drive up to Thunderhart even after he began to feel sick.

Rosenthal said her husband had taught their daughter Nipu to play at a young age. She said Nipu, now 13, would probably follow her father’s footsteps and join the club in Freehold.

Rosenthal said the choice of constructing the Dr. David Berger Play Area at Gouverneur was a fitting tribute to her husband, who had been interested in the impact of waiting room space on health care.

“That was his favorite place and where he was most remembered,” she said.

Friends said Berger tried to include everybody in whatever activity was happening on a given day.

Bob Neppl, who joined Thunderhart at the same time as Berger, in 2002, said he and his wife, MaryEllen, remembered watching the “forever young” Berger rally children for an activity once at a party.

“It was almost like the Pied Piper,” Nippl said of the scene.

And, he said, Berger gave medical advice to fellow golfers in the middle of games.

Dr. Ed Mandeville, Berger’s friend and Director of Obstetrics-Gynecology at Harlem Hospital, said Berger was far too young and far too vital when he died. Mandeville helped organize the drop.

“We wanted to acknowledge his love of golf and how much we miss him,” he said.

Mandeville recalled how he and his wife, Harriet, shared Berger’s love of New Orleans music and culture. Berger attended school and completed his medical residency in that city.

Mandeville provided some golf balls from Berger’s collection to be sold for the drop. Karen Rames, Mandeville and Rosenthal, whose balls landed closest to the target, donated their cash prizes prizes back to the Berger Memorial Fund. Instead, they took home their numbered golf balls from the collection. A fourth individual, Mark Fischweicher, whose ball landed near the target, as well, won a bag of Berger’s used golf tees. Rosenthal said the prize was only appropriate because Fischweicher’s son had received a set of Berger’s golf clubs.

Thunderhart’s owner and Superintendent Erik Nicholsen dropped the balls from a helicopter flying about 150 feet above the range.

Club Manager Kevin Smith, who also helped organize the event, which was open to the public as well as to club members, said about 95 percent of the 180 balls dropped were purchased by Thunderhart’s golfers.

“Our members have really come through,” Smith said. “It is nice that Dr. Berger’s golf club can have a hand in the play area.”