Bernard Klainberg, longtime Manhasset resident, succumbed to complications related to his 30-year battle with Parkinson’s disease. He died Aug. 16, at age 81, despite the herculean efforts of his doctors at North Shore University/Northwell Hospital, and in the presence of all his loving family members.
His Manhasset Press column Bernie’s Banter regaled the community and his avid readers around the globe with his observations, short stories, tall tales, familial “dirty laundry” and quixotic dreams for a better Manhasset from 1993 to 2008.
Along with Marilyn, his bride of 55 years, he was introduced to Manhasset by their very dear friends Rose and Don Ciampa, and they have made it their home since 1971. Ever civic-minded, Klainberg was involved as a committeeman with the Manhasset Democratic Party, was a member of the board of the South Strathmore Civic Association, and was active in school affairs at the North Shore Jewish Kindershul, the Manhasset Public Library and Manhasset High School. He loved the Long Island beaches in all seasons and to spend late summer at the U.S. Open, spring and summer on the Village Bath Club tennis courts and dining as often as possible at his favorite restaurant, Villa Milano.
A real-life Horatio Alger hero, Klainberg was determined and hardworking. His parents, originally from Poland, moved to Argentina in 1929 when uniting with their family in the U.S. was not possible. Klainberg and his brother Dolph were born in Buenos Aires. In 1948, they emigrated to the United States to join his mother’s family in the Bronx, but his love for his first home and his dual native tongues of Spanish and Yiddish were never forgotten.
In the U.S., Bernie helped support his family from a young age with jobs while attending middle and high school, and then while at night school at Baruch/City College and a full-time employee during the day. Though he was only one semester short of his diploma (work opportunities took over), he won awards such as the Masonic commendation for strong grades and “…outstanding qualities of leadership in service projects benefiting his fellow students and the college, and has also undertaken activities as would indicate promise of future devotion to the causes of humanity.” These attributes were consistent throughout his life and passed on to his children.
He was extremely well-read and passionate about literature and books (filling up bags at every SCA Fair for years), world affairs, social justice, travel, theater, and quirky Brit-coms and film (the more thought-provoking and quirkier the comedy, the better!)
He earned U.S. citizenship, served his adopted country as a Staff Sergeant and Instructor in the Air Force Reserves, was a pioneer in the Air Freight forwarding industry in the 1950’s, and founded Berklay Air Services in 1965, with little more than a phone, car, orange crate for a desk and a modest loan. The name came from “BER for Bernie, KLA for Klainberg…and Y…because…‘Y’ not? It sounds American and I love America…and it will be near the top of the list in the Yellow Pages!”
Klainberg worked hard to build a successful company that supported his growing family, his parents and the families of many employees (often giving jobs to family members or friends in need of a job or new career direction.) In a short time, he moved his growing family from the Bronx to Queens then to Manhasset, and put four kids through college and more. He was always ahead of his time, running a “socially responsible” business that put his employees’ benefits before his own and always recalling his tag line, “Trade Aids Peace.”
Don Bernardo, as he became known to those who worked with him and loved him in his early semi-retirement, turned Berklay over to his sons, Dennis and Greg, so he could enjoy his great passions: time and travel with his beloved wife, writing, a new-found love for creating art (often from everyday objects), caring for his aging mother, and, of course, enjoying his growing legion of devoted grandchildren.
His whole life he had a deep passion for the beach and ocean, enjoying winters in his beloved South Beach. And, thanks to his worldwide travels for business and later in life excursions with wife, he imbued many of his columns with wistful adventures and sophisticated viewpoints that captivated and challenged his faithful readers. Before that he created amazing original bedtime and travel stories or recounted his childhood favorite classics that entertained his children and have been passed on to the next generation.
Together with Marilyn, he devoted time to reconnecting with family members and extended family who survived or escaped the Holocaust in Europe to reunite the Klainberg/Kleinberg families (many of whom live in France and Israel). As one cousin from France wrote upon hearing about his passing, “(Bernie) was such a good man who built an empire of love around him.” He was known for his generous and loving heart by so many.
In the last few, difficult years of his life, he benefited from the great love of his family and caretakers, most especially his devoted soulmate, Marilyn, whom he met when she was 18, and from whom he was never more than a heartbeat away.
In addition to Marilyn, Bernie’s infectious laugh, smile and his ever-twinkling blue eyes and quick wit (even during his sickest days) will be terribly missed by his younger brother Dolph, his son Dennis and wife Dana of Manhasset, daughter Danielle and husband Mark Rosenberg of Newton, MA, son Gregory of Great Neck and son Joshua and wife Shelley of Brooklyn (all four children are Silver M winners to his great pride and credit) as well as his 10 adoring grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers or other kindnesses, the family would be delighted to have donations made in his honor to the Bernard and Marilyn Klainberg Nursing Education Scholarship Fund at Adelphi University. For more information, contact Amy Harrison at harrison@adelphi.edu.
