Sally Eileen Berger

Sally Berger
December 30, 1933 July 25, 2022

Dynamic Business, Healthcare and Philanthropic Leader, Loyal Friend

Sally Berger had her own way of doing things. She managed to blend a natural feel for networking with a voluminous rolodex and unbridled determination, blazing a trail in business, philanthropy and civic engagement. Anyone who met her quickly learned she was a force to be reckoned with. She loved life and lived it to the fullest, relentlessly devoted to a trio of passions: family, friends and a career of remarkable achievements.

Sally Diamond was born in 1933 to Muriel and Sol Diamond in Rogers Park on the North Side of Chicago. She grew up with her younger brother Terry and shared a room with her Grandmother Fanny Chern, a tireless fundraiser whose passion for giving back set the foundation for Sally's life work.

Sally was a great athlete. Always feisty and driven, even as a child, she competed on equal footing with men, playing softball in the Janitors League and winning the city-wide Chicago Sun-Times Ping Pong Tournament. Later in life, Sally willed herself to become an amateur golf and tennis champion. Her love of golf, handed down from her father, was a lifelong project she meticulously refined.

Sally attended the University of Miami, where she dabbled in studies while making a name for herself as a fabled "Hurricane Honey."

Once Sally returned to Chicago, she met the love of her life, Miles Berger, though it would take some time before his considerable charms became apparent to her. Their first date was not a success. At a fancy restaurant, Sally found Miles so sure of himself, she ordered the most expensive steak on the menu, cut it open and sat silently until the waiter brought him the check. This was not going to be easy.

But over time romance prevailed and Miles proposed marriage. The happy couple raced over to share news of their engagement with Sally's parents only to have her father Sol tell Miles to "go home and think about it over the weekend."

Sally and Miles started a family while he steadily built a successful career in real estate and banking. In 1957 their son Albert arrived. Their next two children, Andrew and Karen, were both born with Cystic Fibrosis and died at a young age. The toll on the young couple was immense but they did their best to regroup and carry on. Their family became complete when daughter Elizabeth was born in 1968.

In the 1970s, Sally's life changed as she underwent a profound transformation as she found her calling, first as a fundraiser, then as a civic volunteer and business leader.

Some of her notable early achievements include raising a record breaking $1.5 million for Michael Reese Hospital while co-hosting the 1973 Crystal Ball; running Mayor Richard J. Daley's independent campaign, For Chicago, in support of his 1974 re-election; becoming Chairman of the Chicago Commission for Health Planning and Resources Development, which led to a Board seat on the Illinois Statewide Health Coordinating Council, and, ultimately, Chairman of the National Council on Health Planning and Development in Washington, D.C. during the Carter Administration.

Sally left the public sector to become one of the first women partners at Arthur Young, which eventually merged to become Ernst & Young. Sally was a pioneer, helping to chip away at the glass ceiling while successfully developing business opportunities in the national healthcare sector. Additionally, she wrote for an array of national medical publications, as well as hosted and produced an interview series for Hospital Satellite Network, which aired in hospitals across the country.

Sally served on countless prestigious boards including Michael Reese Hospital, The City of Chicago Public Library, for which she was President of the Board, The McCallum Theater in Palm Desert, CA, and Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, CA, where she raised nearly $30 million dollars.

Sally was renowned for her fearless sense of fashion, sporting flamboyant Escada power suits with her slicked back Pat Riley hairstyle and colorful eyeglasses that would make Elton John smile. She loved to laugh. She was as loyal a friend as one could ever find, never giving up on anyone or anything.

Wherever Sally went, she left her indelible mark. For the last 15 years Sally and Miles called Rancho Mirage their home and they've devoted this chapter of life to improving and supporting their new community. On July 25th Sally Berger died at Eisenhower Medical Center on Sally Berger Way, a street named in recognition of her enormous contributions to the hospital she loved.

Sally is survived by her husband of 66 years Miles Berger, her brother Terry Diamond & sister-in-law Marilyn Diamond, her son Albert Berger & daughter-in-law Ellen Steloff, her daughter Elizabeth Berger, her grandchildren Ethan Berger, Henry Steloff-Berger, Karen Shure and Richard Shure, as well as many nieces, nephews, cousins and legions of friends.