Robert Berghan ‘Compassionate,’ ‘Remarkable’

Robert Berghan couldn’t wait to go to school.

He used to sneak away from his mother and out of his house to follow his older sister, Jean, to school.

“He would cry and begged the teacher to let him in,” his wife, Connie Berghan, said. “She would send him home because he wasn’t old enough.”

That desire for education braced him for a journey through 19 schools. Berghan then developed an insatiable passion to heal.

Berghan died Oct. 3 at age 80 after more than half a century of practicing medicine. He treated patients in Spokane, Saudi Arabia and Sandpoint before retiring in 1993.

In 1996 he and Connie gave up their skis for golf clubs and moved to Hayden Lake.

“He was one of the most kind and compassionate people ever born,” said his wife of 25 years.

On Oct. 12, Hayden Lake Country Club hosted a memorial service for Robert Berghan, who had three children from a previous marriage and seven grandchildren.

“He hated funerals. He said he wanted a lot of food, a lot of booze and a lot of stories,” Connie Berghan said. “It was a celebration of a fabulous man.”

The story of Berghan’s life started with his adventurous parents.

They grew up 25 miles apart in North Dakota and courted each other for two years at regular Friday dances.

At one of these dances, they won a door prize, which was a 20-acre homestead in Canada’s Yukon Territory.

Frank and Cecilia Berghan married, sold everything they had and jumped on a train to Edmonton.

There they bought an ox and a covered wagon and walked the 800 miles north to their land. They built a home and raised silver foxes.

Cecilia got pregnant and Frank sent for a doctor. He had to raise enough money to get the doctor to the Yukon.

Jean Berghan was born in 1919 - the first white child in the territory. Robert was born a year later.

Even though Cecilia was a teacher, the family decided to move to find a formal education when the children got old enough.

“They bought a Model T Ford, put a sign on it that said `Tijuana or Bust’ and headed southwest,” Berghan said. “They broke down in Portland.”

Frank Berghan worked as a pharmacist, he sold Hershey chocolate for a while and moved around a lot. That caused Robert to attend 19 schools before attending college at the University of Oregon.

“The family didn’t have much money. So, to go to school (Robert) packed peas in the Walla Walla area over the summer,” she said.

To raise money to go to medical school, Robert Berghan enlisted in the Navy Reserves. He served in the states during World War II. His primary job was to give physicals to soldiers.

Berghan served his internship at the Long Island College Hospital in New York.

“This was big city for an Oregon country bumpkin,” she said.

While there, Berghan landed in hot water when he suggested that a dead girl have an autopsy. The girl turned out to be the daughter of a prominent mafia family.

After Berghan hid out by sleeping three weeks at the hospital, the local cops made a deal, and Berghan was off the hook.

“He never suggested another autopsy as long as he was in New York,” Connie Berghan said.

Berghan than traveled to Detroit to serve his residency at Henry Ford Hospital.

“He thought he would end up going to Oregon. Then about 1950, he heard of the Rockwood Clinic in Spokane. He was one of the original five partners,” his wife said. “He was there for 25 years.”

Then in January 1975, Robert and Connie Berghan, of Spokane, were married.

“We got a call on Sunday while we were having breakfast,” Connie Berghan said. “It was one of his old medical school buddies. He asked, `Have you ever done anything crazy?’ Robert said: `Well, I’m going to marry a 25-year-old.’ ”

The friend suggested that Robert and Connie move to Riyadh, Saudia Arabia, and help set up a new $800 million hospital.

“I asked, `Where is Saudia Arabia?’ We got our globe and found it,” she said. “We moved there in March 1975.”

Upon arrival, they found conditions were less than ideal.

“It was a quonset hut. A guy from Tennessee told us that Robert’s medical school buddy had been fired and was shipped out,” Connie Berghan said. “He took us to the Riyadh Hotel. There were mice everywhere.”

After an eventful trip to the bathroom, where she was accompanied by four mice and cockroaches, “I just started to cry.”

Conditions improved and the Berghans ended up staying five years.

One day, a bunch of Arabs ran into Berghan’s clinic, threw him into a limousine and rushed him to the hospital. Berghan was ushered into a room where a shooting victim lay on a table. He tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the man.

The victim was Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal, who had just been assassinated.

“The Queen invited me to lunch as a thank you. We had a wonderful relationship with the Saudis,” Connie Berghan said.

In 1980, the Berghans left the Middle East and moved to Sandpoint. Robert Berghan opened a private practice.

“Robert was a big-time skier. So when we met, our common goal was to live in Sandpoint,” she said.

Berghan later became the chief of staff at Bonner General Hospital and also served on its board of directors.

He retired in 1993, and the couple moved to Hayden Lake in 1996.

About a year-and-a-half ago, Robert Berghan was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer.

“Sometimes when you know too much, it’s harder. He knew what lay ahead,” Connie Berghan said. “But he was more concerned about me than anything else.”

This past summer, he had improved enough to go golfing with some of his many friends. He couldn’t swing the clubs, but he was able to ride around in the golf cart.

Then on Oct. 3, Berghan went to get blood drawn at the North Idaho Cancer Center.

Walking in the door, he stopped suddenly. “He said, `I need a second.’ I called for a wheelchair. He said, `I just got dizzy for a second. I’ll be fine,”’ his wife said.

“He said, `Let’s just grab a burger on the way home.”’ Berghan sat down, had his blood drawn. His head fell forward. He died instantly from a heart attack.

“I was very happy that he died suddenly,” she said. “If he could have orchestrated his death to protect his family, this was the way.”

“He was a remarkable man.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: Help us honor exemplary residents of past

“Tributes,” a feature of Handle Extra, celebrates the lives of area residents who have died recently. Seemingly ordinary citizens who typically aren’t featured in the newspaper often lead lives that are exemplary or extraordinary. It’s our goal to feature such a person each week in Handle Extra. If you would like to suggest someone for this tribute, contact either Alison Boggs (e-mail alisonb@spokesman.com, phone 765-7136) or Jenny Slater (e-mail jennys@spokesman.com, phone 765-7147). Space is limited to one tribute per week, so we apologize in advance for not being able to feature all of the deserving residents of our community.