b. Dec. 4, 1927 Phoenix, Arizona
d. May 7, 2012 Mesa, Arizona
After honorably serving his country in the U.S. Army during the Korean War he resumed his employment with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, where he was a surveyor, a project coordinator and chief of field operations. He worked seasonally in Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands. His family accompanied him wherever his career took him, including throughout the United States and to the continent of Africa. As a government employee on loan to the Department of State, he spent three and a half years in Ethiopia, where he surveyed the area of the Blue Nile River basin for the Emperor Haile Selassie.
Berni transferred to White Sands Missile Range in 1964 and the family settled in Alamogordo. He retired from civil service in 1981 to manage his local business interests.