Berford Jr. BRITTAIN

Berford Brittain, 92, Hinsdale Booster

March 04, 1998|By Gene Kuleta. Special to the Tribune.Berford Brittain Jr., 92, of Daphne, Ala., and a former longtime Hinsdale resident and civic leader, died Feb. 19 in Alabama.

Born in Pittsburgh, Mr. Brittain moved to Hinsdale with his family at age 10 in 1915, after his father's job was transferred to the area from Pennsylvania.

Upon moving to the Chicago area, Mr. Brittain's father looked for a good place to raise a family and found the then-rural community of Hinsdale.

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"It was a simple rural village where people knew each other," said Mr. Brittain's daughter Anne Roush. "There was always a neighbor or a friend who knew where your children were."

And though the village was sparsely populated when Mr. Brittain first saw it, there was much steady growth, especially in the years after World War II.

"We saw many newcomers discovering it," Roush said.

Mr. Brittain later graduated from Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania in 1925 and then from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1929.

During his final years at Amherst, Mr. Brittain served as an intern at Continental Illinois Bank and Trust Co. in Chicago. He began a full-time job at the bank immediately after graduating in 1929.

He worked for the bank until he retired to Alabama in 1970.

"He never worked for anybody but the Continental Illinois Bank," Roush said.

Mr. Brittain also was heavily involved in civic affairs in Hinsdale, where he served organizations such as the Community Chest and the Zoning and Planning Commission.

"He had always been very active," Roush said. "His love was Hinsdale."

Other survivors include his wife, Janet; another daughter, Mary McHenry; two stepdaughters, Joan Sullivan and Judith Warren; a stepson, John Warren; two sisters; 11 grandchildren; and 15 great-grandchildren. Memorial services will be private.

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