Robert "Grizz" Berg, a tinkerer and mechanic who lived with his family eight years at Glacier Point in the early 1980s, died Jan. 30 in Aniwa, Wis. He was 81 and had been suffering throat cancer and heart failure.

According to stepson George Edwards of Haines, Berg was a "tough, ornery critter" who owned property here and worked on it during summers for a decade before moving here with wife Bridgett and five of her children in 1978.

"We'd call him Gaddafi and threaten to go on strike, but we had lots of fun. He was a unique character. I guess he fit Haines well that way," Edwards said.

Robert Charles Berg was born in Peck, Wis. on June 28, 1932 to Charles and Ruby Berg. He attended high school in nearby Antigo, and came to Alaska with a buddy in a homemade convertible around 1950. He worked on the Alaska Railroad before being drafted into the Army in 1953.

Berg attended diesel mechanic school in California. He married Jean M. Olsen in Pomona in 1956. Four years later, he bought a 48-acre section of the Stelting family homestead at Glacier Point and spent summers clearing land and building a cabin there. During those years, he worked factory jobs at Lockheed Aircraft in southern California, Boeing in Seattle, and in Wisconsin for American Motors and Pabst Brewing Co.

He ran a feed mill in Wisconsin and took over his family's dairy farm. There he met Bridgett Edwards, who was working milking cows and raking hay, George Edwards said.

At 14, Edwards was the oldest of Bridgett's five children who made the move north with Berg. "We didn't know what we were getting into," he said. Berg, a health living advocate, allowed no processed sugar on the point, where the family subsisted on a garden they built up with seaweed compost. "We lived on honey and salmon, and we lived a lot off the land. It was quite an adventure."

The family kept a horse, goats and chickens and Berg scavenged. "He would drag home plywood and scraps. You always had something heavy to drag up the beach," Edwards said. Berg eschewed power tools and would use an old car and a rudimentary penstock to charge batteries at the point, rather than use a generator. "Everything had to be done by hand," he said, including clearing land.

Gene Clark of Haines befriended Berg and housed family members when they were stranded in town with no other place to go. With a CB radio and directional antenna, Clark relayed messages between Glacier Point and people in town.

He described Berg as a loner who was good with hand tools. "He was pretty much quiet unless somebody turned his crank, then he'd go off."

The family moved back to town in 1986. Berg built a house on Small Tracts Road, where he accumulated cars and Bridgett ran a gift trailer, selling her handiworks. "He was a hard nut to crack. He drug all kinds of junk home," Clark said. "Grizz would say, 'We could fix this up when ours wears out.' But he never fixed any of them."

In 1998, Berg returned to Wisconsin at Bridgett's direction. "She packed her bags, so he had no choice. He didn't pack until (the last minute). He didn't want to leave, but he didn't want to lose his pet," Edwards said. They bought a home in Aniwa and married in August 2000 after 31 years together.

Berg's hobbies included reading, traveling and polka dancing.

He is survived by wife Bridgett, and their 12 children, Lila Ourada, Cynthia Walrath, Eric Berg, Julia Berg-Stahel, Christopher Berg, and Anne Rickert, all residents of the Antigo, Wis. area, and by David Edwards of Marquette, Mich., John Edwards of Wisconsin, Tina Kurz of New Jersey, Ricky Edwards of Idaho, Ruby Edwards of Washington, and George Edwards of Haines.

He also is survived by brothers Daniel Berg, Frank Berg and Edward Berg.

Condolences can be sent to Bridgett Berg, 19124 W. Church St., Aniwa, WI 54408. A celebration of life will be held in Wisconsin in August.