Br. Jeffrey of Mary

Raymond Charles Berta was born in Ottawa, Illinois, the son of Raymond Joseph Berta and Evelyn Marie Hertzner. He entered the Novitiate on June 16, 1959, and received the habit and the religious name of Brother Jeffrey of Mary on August 30, 1959. Ray completed his undergraduate degree at St. Mary's College in Winona, Minnesota, and received his first teaching assignment to Christian Brothers High School in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1963. He moved to St. George High School in Evanston, Illinois, in 1964 and to Gabriels High School in Lansing, Michigan, in 1965. He was assigned to Lewis University in 1971 where he remained as teacher, associate professor and community director until 1978. His love of speech, literature and drama, led him to two master's degrees before beginning his doctoral studies at Stanford University in 1979. Ray spent the remainder of his educational career on the campus of St. Mary's College of California. (1979-2002). He officially transferred to the San Francisco District in 1996. When his health deteriorated, he moved to Mont La Salle in Napa where he died on November 20th, at age sixty-four, having been a De La Salle Christian Brothers for forty-five years.