Ken Hartz

Kathy Bergum,

Ken Hartz, 49

Bainbridge Island residents Ken Hartz and Kathy Bergum, both 49, were killed in a Feb. 17 car accident outside Cle Elum.

Kenneth William Hartz was born in Seattle on July 31, 1956, to Alice Helen (Thorsteinson) Martinez and Billy J. Hartz.

He attended Nathan Hale High School and Bellingham High School, as well as Western Washington State University and the University of Washington. He earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Washington in 1984 and a master’s degree in architecture from Harvard University in 1989.

Kathleen Annette Bergum was born Sept. 6, 1956, in the Detroit suburb of Mount Clemens, Mich., to Josephine and the late Harold Bergum.

She grew up in nearby Roseville, graduating from Carol Brablec High School. She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1978 and a master’s degree in architecture there in 1980.

Although Hartz grew up in the Pacific Northwest, he and Bergum met through mutual friends in Cambridge, Mass., when he was attending graduate school and she was working for the Massachusetts Division of Capital Planning and Operation.

They were married on June 25, 1988, in New Harbor, Maine, and moved to Bainbridge in 1989.

Both were members of the national and Seattle chapters of the American Institute of Architects. During his 10-year tenure (1993-2003) with LMN Architects, Hartz worked on the Washington State Exhibition Hall in Seattle and the expansion of the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.

From 1989 to 1993, Hartz was a project designer with Callison Architecture in Seattle, where he worked on more than a dozen Nordstrom stores and other retail outlets across the country. More recently, he spent two years with O’Connor Kriegh Architects on Bainbridge Island. At the time of his death, he was working with architect Peter Brachvogel.

Bergum was working for O’Connor Kreigh Architects of Bainbridge Island at the time of her death. As a project architect, she took the lead on such high-profile remodels as Winslow Corner and the Ihland Garden Dental Clinic, as well as a number of private island residences. Most recently, she was working on the new Vineyard Lane project.

Bergum won two affordable housing design awards for a competition sponsored by the Bainbridge Island Housing Resources Board, Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority and the Windermere Foundation.

For almost seven years in the 1990s, Bergum was the principal of her own firm.

Hartz was a longtime member of the Worship Committee at Cedars Unitarian Universalist Church and sang in the church’s choir. An avid musician and sailor, he collected and played many instruments and built his own boat, a classic Maine Peapod.

Bergum served on the Mayor’s Task Force on Affordable Housing, the board of the Housing Resources Board, and the Site Acquisition Committee at Cedars church. She was also very involved in supporting Girl Scout Service Unit 311 and in crafting the school facilities bond and technology levy, which voters on Bainbridge Island recently passed.

The couple were among the founders and active supporters of the Odyssey Multiage Program, an alternative school within the Bainbridge public school system.

Hartz and Bergum are the parents of Kirsten, 16, and Kyle, 13. In addition to their children, Hartz is survived by his mother and stepfather, Alice Helen (Thorstainson) and Richard Martinez of Port Townsend; his father, Billy J. Hartz of Bellingham; his sister, Laurie Theresa Bridge of Bellingham; and his brothers, Warren Craig Hartz of Index and Richard Alan Hartz of Pondicherry, India.

Bergum is survived by her mother, Josephine of Macomb, Mich.; and her brothers Bruce of Davisburg, Mich., David of Appling, Ga., and Paul of Bangkok, Thailand.

A community memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. March 26 in the Bainbridge High School gymnasium, with a reception following in the BHS Commons.

Memorial gifts may be made to the Kirsten and Kyle Benevolent Fund at any American Marine Bank branch.

The fund will be used to support the children’s education and other expenses.