Donna Daniluck Bergmann
July 2, 1958 – June 29, 2016
Memory Eternal
Donna Daniluck Bergmann was born in 1958 in suburban Maryland to Helen and Serge Daniluck, ardent supporters and members of Saint Nicholas Cathedral. She was raised in Montgomery County, attending Saint Nicholas where she was married. Donna passed away unexpectedly from illness at the young age of 58, having spent most of her life at Saint Nicholas, supporting the Cathedral, The Dormition Guild and the Fellowship of Orthodox Christians in America. Towards the end of her life, Donna became a member of St. Matthew Orthodox Church in Columbia, Maryland. She is buried at All Souls Cemetery in Germantown, Maryland.
Donna was a lifelong resident of the Montgomery County suburbs of Washington, DC, and a parishioner in the Russian Orthodox faith at Saint Nicholas Cathedral, Washington, DC, where she attended Sunday School and participated in the Federated Russian Orthodox Clubs of America. In later life she became a member of the Orthodox Church of Saint Matthew, Columbia, MD. She was a graduate of Northwood High School, Kemp Mill, MD (1976), and the University of Maryland, University College.
Her working career spanned from serving as secretary to former Maryland Senator Joseph Tydings at the law firm of Finley, Kumble, Wagner, through many successful years in Tupperware sales. All the while, she continued donating her talents to the Dormition Sisterhood/Guild at St. Nicholas and to St. Matthew's, where many will remember her as a food server at the Greek booth at the church festival.
As a teen and young adult, Donna was an active participant in the Nation’s Capital “R” Club of the FROC/FOCA, (Federated Russian Orthodox Clubs/Fellowship of Orthodox Christians in America), starting as a Junior during her teens and continuing her membership as a Senior until she transferred to St. Matthew’s in Columbia. She, along with her parents, were mainstays of the Nation’s Capital chapter through the 1990s and 2000s. She was very active on both the local level and on the national level, participating in numerous national events and conventions. She often related the memory of her time as an advisor at an FOCA convention; she spent the night in front of the hotel room door of a group of young girls to assure curfews. There was also the year that she and Walter Alesevich pretended to become engaged to try to lower their membership fees!
Donna met the love of her life, Steve Bergmann, in 1984 and was married at Saint Nicholas Cathedral in 1986. Her daughter, Helena (named for her grandmother Helen Daniluck), was born in October of 1990 and was baptized at the Cathedral in the baptismal font donated by her grandparents.
While at St. Nicholas, Donna regularly contributed to parish life, often making meals and serving luncheons at the Cathedral. Donna was a great cook and her Kielbasa and Kraut was a regular favorite at the Annual Bazaars. Donna was a long time member of the Dormition Sisterhood (renamed the Dormition Guild) and she was regularly seen helping at the Annual Blini luncheon and contributed much to the life of the Cathedral.
Compiled by L. Mikhalevsky, original obituary by Steve Bergmann and David Oleynik, contributions from Walter Alesevich and Andrea Lutov.
