Bernice E. Gumbel

New Bern, N.C.

Bernice E. Gumbel 1923 ~ 2023 Bernice Gumbel passed away on February 28, 2023 in New Bern, North Carolina. She always said she didn’t want to live to be 100 and she got her wish. She was born Bernice Evelyne Liebel on November 14, 1923 on the Liebel homestead in Carpio, North Dakota as the fourth of eight children. She grew up on a farm near Foxholm, North Dakota while attending country schools through eighth grade.

She graduated from Minot High School in 1941 and got her standard teaching certificate from Minot State Teachers College in 1943. Her first job after receiving her teaching certificate was teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in York, North Dakota. When her U.S. Coast Guard brother-in-law was sent to a school in Groton, Connecticut during WWII she joined her sister and worked in the Petaganset Finishing Co., bandage factory in Niantic. She then moved to Kirkland, Washington and worked in the electric shop of Lake Washington Shipyards in Houghton. She was proud of being crowned queen of the day during an all-yard picnic in September 1944. After the war she worked for the Department of Commerce in Seattle. She was married in Seattle in 1951 where her daughter Paula was born in 1952.

The family moved to California in 1953 where son John was born in 1955 and Gregory in 1957. Bernice got her bachelor’s degree in education from San Francisco State University in 1964. She worked as a substitute teacher before going to work for the Department of Defense in San Bruno, California in 1967.

In 1979, she returned to Seattle to be closer to family. She moved from Seattle to New Bern, North Carolina in 2010 so her son John and daughter-in-law Stacey could take care of her.

Bernice is survived by her daughter Paula Hagg of Falcon Heights, Minn., son John (Stacey) of New Bern, N.C., her son Gregory of Berkeley, Calif., her granddaughter Elise Rosengren of Minneapolis, Minn., grandson Blake (Cassie) Rosengren of Thousand Oaks, Calif., grandson Capt Evan (Caitlyn) Gumbel, USMC of Ft Worth, Texas, grandson LT Andrew Gumbel, USN of Bath, Maine, grandson 1stLt Cameron Gumbel, USMC of Pace, Fla., granddaughter Oliva Gumbel of New Bern, N.C., great grandson Mason Rosengren and great granddaughter Emilia Gumbel. She also survived by many nieces and nephews. She will be laid to rest at Holyrood Cemetery in Shoreline, Wash., at 11:00 a.m. on March 20. Memorials can be made to your local food bank in her name.

Published by The Minot Daily News, March 14, 2023.