Doris G. Corner Bergner

Doris G. Bergner was born Doris G. Corner on December 18, 1896, in Ayer, Massachusetts, the daughter of George P. Corner and Alice J. (Gage) Corner. She married Everett Thomas Sampson in 1918 and taught for most of her career as Mrs. Doris G. Sampson. A graduate of the Salem Normal School who later took a B.S.E. at Boston University, she taught for four years in Franklin before she was hired in 1927 as one of four new teachers at Howe High School, along with Emma R. Belcher.

As a teacher at Howe High School she taught history, chiefly United States and world history, for twenty-eight years. She continued her own studies, taking courses at Boston University and through University Extension in 1931, and was a frequent class adviser, among others to the classes of 1938 and 1939. Her students remembered "History fifth period with Mrs. Sampson" and "Mrs. Bergner's history classes," and one senior of 1941 left his drawing ability "to Mrs. Sampson, who claims she cannot draw a straight line." On the wartime faculty page of 1945 her pet peeve was people who explain movies, her ambition to own a hotel, and her favorite memory a trip to New York.

In 1950 she married Arthur William Bergner, and from the next year the yearbooks name her Mrs. Bergner. In 1952, the centennial of secondary education in Billerica, the senior class dedicated its yearbook to her together with Principal Cyril D. Locke, Harriet C. Baker and Miss Belcher, and the class history, written as a play called "Memories," named her and Miss Baker as its directors. She moved with the school to the new Billerica Memorial High School in 1955, teaching United States history there, and resigned in 1958.

She died in Lowell on October 1, 1967, and was buried in the Edson Cemetery in Lowell.

References

1. Find a Grave: Doris Gulah Corner Sampson Bergner (1896-1967), Edson Cemetery, Lowell, with Lowell Sun obituary of Oct. 2, 1967
2. Report of the Superintendent of Schools, 1927 (Doris G. Sampson, four years in Franklin, hired for the High School)
3. Report of the Superintendent of Schools, 1931 (Doris G. Sampson among teachers taking courses at Boston University and University Extension)
4. Howe High School yearbook 1939, class history (Mrs. Sampson chosen as class adviser)
5. Howe High School yearbook 1945, faculty page (Mrs. Doris Sampson: U.S. and World History; pet peeve, ambition, favorite memory)
6. Howe High School yearbook 1951, faculty (Mrs. Bergner)
7. Howe High School yearbook 1952, dedication to Mr. Locke, Mrs. Doris Bergner, Miss Baker and Miss Belcher
8. Howe High School yearbook 1952, class history (class night "Memories" directed by Mrs. Doris Bergner)
9. School Department, 1958 (Doris G. Bergner among resignations)