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.

Bergstrom was raised on the family farm near Rush Point, Minn., where they raised cattle and hogs. During the Korean War he was drafted into the Army, serving in Germany and working in the Ordnance Corps. His job, searching for undetonated explosives, caused him permanent hearing loss.

After a stint at the University of Minnesota, he went to work for Minneapolis Moline and then Control Data as a production supervisor.

Although he left the farm, the farm never left him. Members of the family still own part of the original farmstead near Rush Point, where the family last summer held a large reunion. Naturally, he brought along his accordion.

Besides his wife and son Mike, Bergstrom is survived by a daughter, Cathy, of Taylors Falls; sons Darrell, of Forest Lake, and Jerry, of Maple Grove; and seven grandchildren.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday in Abiding Savior Lutheran Church, 8211 Red Oak Drive, Mounds View.