Maxine Berlinger had a distinguished career as a pediatric nurse and educator, but to a legion of nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews, she was Aunt Max.
Berlinger, who never married and had no children, died Aug. 29 at her north Denver home. She was 77.
Berlinger was an assistant dean at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and associate professor of nursing at the University of Hawaii.
Except for her handful of years in Hawaii, she lived all her life in the house where she had been reared and where she cared for her parents, Ben and Elvera, until their deaths.
Berlinger played hostess to family spaghetti dinners Thursdays and Sundays and took the kids to get a “cow milk” – ice cream – at Milandy’s, said her niece, Kathy Ginardi of Arvada. She also bought the children clothes, coats and shoes for school, and took them on trips to Disneyland and Hawaii.
About 50 people attended her Christmas Eve fish dinners. Berlinger bought presents for each guest.
Berlinger loved to do the jitterbug, wore big hats on Easter Sunday and often went “up the hill,” as she called it, to toss quarters into the slot machines at Black Hawk casinos, said Ginardi.
Berlinger and her sister Jennie Negri of Denver played cards weekly.Although the sisters were close and the stakes only a quarter, “they were competitive,” Ginardi said.
Maxine Berlinger was born in Denver on April 10, 1930.
Student nurses lived next door, and being around them led her into the nursing life, said Ginardi.
Berlinger attended Teikyo Loretto Heights College here and the University of Chicago, returning to Denver to be a pediatric nurse at the University of Colorado Hospital.
She helped create a program in midwifery at the CU school of nursing and a graduate program in pediatric and maternity nursing.
Berlinger was acting assistant dean of graduate affairs, assistant dean of undergraduate programs and associate director of inpatient services at CU. She later taught at the University of Hawaii.
She received awards from CU, Loretto Heights and the University of Hawaii.
In addition to her sister, she is survived by 11 nieces and nephews and scores of great-nieces and great-nephews.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com.
