Edwin A. Bergman, 68, past president and board chairman of the U.S. Reduction Co., an aluminum-recycling company headquartered in Lansing, was chairman of the board of trustees of the University of Chicago from 1981 to 1985. A founder and past president of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, he was one of the leading patrons and collectors of art in the Midwest.
Services for Mr. Bergman, a resident of Hyde Park, will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesdayin Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 5850 S. Woodlawn Ave. He died Monday in his home.
”We appreciate all that Edwin Bergman has done,” said Hanna H. Gray, president of the University of Chicago. ”We cherished his friendship. He was a man of extraordinary energy, talent and devotion to the institutions that he cherished. Our university is fortunate to be one of those institutions, and we were all privileged to benefit from his warmth and generosity.”
Mr. Bergman, a native of Chicago, was graduated from the University of Chicago in 1939 with a bachelor`s degree in business administration. He began his career with U.S. Reduction in 1940. As president and later chairman, he helped build the largest independent secondary aluminum smelter in the United States. The company was later acquired by the American Can Co.
On his election as chairman of the board of trustees of the university in 1981, he resigned from U.S. Reduction to devote himself full time to his duties at the university. While chairman, he played a central role in the creation of new boards of governors for the university`s hospitals and clinics, for Argonne National Laboratory and for the David and Alfred Smart Gallery. He also was active in beginning the university`s Campaign for Arts and Sciences.
He and his wife, ”Lindy,” established the Bergman Gallery, designed as both a studio for undergraduates and as an exhibition center.
The couple`s interest in art began in 1939, when they were students at the University of Chicago. The hundreds of objects in their art collection range from primitive tribal African works to abstract metal and wooden sculptures.
In 1982, the couple established the Edwin and Lindy Bergman Joseph Cornell Gallery at the Art Institute of Chicago. Their collection of works by Cornell (1903-1972) is regarded as the finest in the world. The gift comprised almost 100 of the artist`s box constructions and collages.
A founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Mr. Bergman served as its president from 1974 to 1976.
Survivors, in addition to his wife, the former Betty J. Lindenberger, include a son, Robert; two daughters, Carol A. Cohen and Betsy Rosenfield;
three grandchildren; and a brother, William.
