Harold A. Bilger, 78
STAMFORD, Vt. — Harold Alphonse Bilger, 78, of Mill Road died Monday, May 2, 2011, at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton.
Born in Tolland on Aug. 2, 1932, oldest of the two sons of Leslie Arthur and Ruth Engstrom Bilger, he attended Ashfield Elementary School and graduated from Sanderson Academy in 1950. He studied electronics at what was then DeVry Technical Institute in Chicago from September 1955 to 1957. He then lived on Church Street in North Adams before moving to Stamford in 1958.
An Air Force veteran of the Korean War, he enlisted in 1951 and was schooled in electronics at Keesler Air Force Base in D'Iberville, Miss., and served in Kimpo, South Korea, until July 1953. He later was stationed at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod and was honorably discharged in April 1955.
Mr. Bilger was employed at the former Sprague Electric Co. in North Adams as an electronics technician from 1957 until 1968, when he went to work at the former General Electric in Pittsfield. He was a quality control specialist and engineer in the Ordnance Division for procurement of electronic components and modules. He retired on Jan. 31, 1993, to take care of his late wife, the former Kathryn Gail Rice of Plainfield. He also had worked for a short time on the Rice Farm in Plainfield.
His wife, whom he married on Aug. 14, 1954, while being stationed at Otis, died from Parkinson's disease in May 1998.
He was an active member of the Stamford Volunteer Fire Department for several years. He was town constable from 1959 to 1961 and a state deputy game warden from 1960 to 1968.
A sports enthusiast, he participated in hunting, fishing, baseball, softball, basketball and golf. He initiated a boys' basketball team at the elementary school in 1962 and coached it for eight years. In September 1966, he received the State Board of Education Layman's Award for his accomplishments with the school team.
Mr. Bilger was a member of the American Legion since 1987 and joined Readsboro Post 29 in 1990. He served as post adjutant for five years, first vice commander for two years, and judge advocate for a year.
He leaves two sons, Brian Leslie Bilger and his wife, Laura, and their daughters Jamie and Kaila, and Donald Edward Bilger and his wife, JoAnn Dunn, and her daughter, Tonya, all of Washington state, and Dunn's daughter, Keri, of Alaska; a daughter, Brenda Bilger Yarnal and her husband, Dominick, of Pownal; Dominick Yarnal's children Justin of Hoosick Falls, N.Y., and Mary, Nick and Henry of Pownal, and a brother, Robert Leslie Bilger of Millerton, N.Y.
FUNERAL NOTICE — Calling hours for Mr. Bilger will be Tuesday, May 10, 2011, from 4 to 7 at Flynn & Dagnoli-Montagna Home for Funerals, West Chapels, 521 West Main St., North Adams. Burial will be private.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Stamford Volunteer Fire Department in care of the funeral home.