RoseMary Bergen, 71, former town treasurer

RoseMary Petrillo Bergen of Hamden, a pipe-smoking former town treasurer, died Wednesday, Oct. 11, at Cromwell Crest Nursing Home in Cromwell. She was 71 years old.
A native of Hamden, Ms. Bergen was born on Oct. 19, 1928, a daughter of John and Rose Signore Petrillo. She grew up in Hamden and graduated from Quinnipiac College, then known as Larsen College, in 1949.
An accountant by profession, Ms. Bergen had held a variety of positions including assistant controller of the town of Wilton and asset administrator in Wilton, town accountant in Woodbridge, cost analyst for KMS industries, accountant at Brock Hall Dairy, and an internal auditor at Giltex Manufacturing.
She moved to Ridgefield in 1978, was a member of the Republican Town Committee, and served on the selectmen’s Purchasing Committee. In 1981, she was elected town treasurer on the Republican ticket, serving one two-year term. Soon after she returned to Hamden.
Ms. Bergen, who was divorced, had been proud of the fact that she had supported her family on her own from 1958, and had put both of her children through college. She was also well-known in town hall for smoking a pipe.
"She was a very kind person," said Tax Collector Mary Hart Foyt, who first ran for her job the same year Ms. Bergen ran for hers. "She had a big heart."
She was active in many professional organizations, and belonged to the Alumni Board of Governors of Quinnipiac College and had served as treasurer of the Quinnipiac Alumni Association.
Her survivors include a daughter, Kathleen Fura of Northford; a son, William B. Bergen Jr., of Bethel; a sister, Anne Murphy of Mystic; a brother, Carmen DelVecchio of Hamden; and one grandchild. Her former husband, William B. Bergen Sr. of New Haven, also survives.
Services will take place at Porto Funeral Home, 234 Foxon Road, Route 80, East Haven, on Friday at 11 a.m.
Friends may call at the funeral home Thursday from 5 to 8.