Doggie Berg, a star on the drums and in the classroom

Don (Doggie) Berg, considered a top drummer in traditional New Orleans jazz circles, was also a college teacher and entrepreneur.

Berg, 78, the drummer for the Hall Brothers Jazz Band and the Bill Evans New Orleans Jazz Band, died unexpectedly following a heart attack last Wednesday while power walking near his home in River Falls, Wis.

Berg, a part-owner of the now-defunct Emporium of Jazz in Mendota, played with traditional jazz groups around the world.

Bandmate Bill Evans of Eagan said he was one of a few in the nation who played the drums properly for the style of music, complementing his bandmates' work.

"He was excellent at it," Evans said. "Everybody was happy to play with him. He always provided a driving spark and enthusiasm, and his singing was the same way."

He was a fan favorite, and a humorous storyteller as well. If you asked him how he got his nickname, "Doggie," he would say: "Ah, you're barking up the wrong tree," Evans said.

According to his family, he was once named the best traditional snare drummer of his generation.

He met the future cornetist for the band, Charlie DeVore, in the back of a New Orleans police van in 1957, according to a Dec. 13, 1992, Star Tribune article.

The two were among several young white musicians who sat in with some older black players during a late-night jam session in an art gallery. The session was raided, ostensibly because of the noise level but actually, as a judge made clear, because they were "mixing cream and coffee."

Berg grew up in Wausau, Wis., and served as a Marine during the early 1950s.

In the mid-1950s, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Latin American studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Later, at the University of Minnesota, he completed a master's degree and did much work toward a Ph.D. in linguistics. He joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in 1968, teaching Spanish and Latin American civilization.

There, he established a program for students to study in Mexico.

"His Spanish was excellent," and he knew Portuguese as well, Soares said.

He retired from the university in 1995.

He would gladly sit in and play with the "Tin Pan Alley Cats," said the band's tuba player, Dave Wood of River Falls, a retired Star Tribune books editor.

Wood recalled that his friend "would play with us as if he were playing with a great band."

He is survived by his wife of 20 years, Mimi Trudeau of River Falls; sons Clint, of Nashville, and Jason of Minnetonka; stepsons Brent Griffin of Burnsville and Phillip Griffin of Minneapolis; a brother, Stuart of Wausau, Wis., and three grandchildren.