James Bergstrom not only taught himself how to play the accordion, he also bought and restored them, and then went off to the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Medical Center to play for veterans.
He restored old John Deere tractors, like the kind his father drove decades ago on their Chisago County farm, and exhibited them at thresher shows.
He used to buy older houses, restore them and then rent or sell them.
"He didn't sit around," said his son Mike, of Randolph, Minn.
Bergstrom, 77, died Friday of an aneurysm at a hospital in Sandstone, Minn. He and his wife of 54 years, Corinne, had been staying at Grand Casino Hinckley after seeing the Bobby Vinton Christmas show the previous night.
Bergstrom, a longtime Mounds View resident, for several years worked in home finance and banking in St. Paul. Much of his career was spent helping to revitalize the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood on St. Paul's East Side, which contains a diverse collection of older homes in Victorian, Italianate and Queen Anne styles.
Before he retired in 2002, he was a home improvement specialist for Liberty State Bank in St. Paul. He was hired by Liberty after working closely with the bank while employed by another company that went under, Mike Bergstrom said.
"They enjoyed working with Dad so much that they offered him a job," he said.
