Obituary : Bernice K. Ungermann; Retired Schoolteacher

Bernice K. Ungermann, a retired Thousand Oaks schoolteacher and a 50-year Ventura County resident, has died at age 80.

She was born in Idaho in 1917, the daughter of John Kelley, a wealthy potato and sugar beet rancher, family members said. She met her future husband, Ralph, 18 years later when they were both students at Brigham Young University in Utah.

The two married in 1939 and moved to Santa Paula in 1947, when Ralph Ungermann, who is now 80, landed a teaching job. He later became the principal of Ladera Elementary School and for a short time in the 1960s was acting superintendent of the Conejo Valley Unified School District.

After the couple’s six children were grown and the Ungermanns had moved to Camarillo, Bernice got a college degree by correspondence and earned a teaching credential. She was an elementary school teacher in Camarillo for several years, then taught at grade schools in Thousand Oaks for nearly two decades.

“Children, whether they were hers or those she taught, always came first,” said daughter Kathleen Van Ausdal of Carson City, Nev. “She treated everyone like an individual.”

Always an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Thousand Oaks, Ungermann had even more opportunities to volunteer at the church in retirement, family members said. She taught women’s groups and headed services to feed people in need.

“She believed in the Bible and wanted to make sure that its teachings were lived,” Van Ausdal said. “The greatest thing was to love another.”

Although she had arthritis in her later years, Bernice Ungermann would still sew cloth dolls for her 24 grandchildren.

“She’d complain about it, but she still made us dolls,” said granddaughter Annette Scheichl. “I have a Western one, two Hawaiian dolls and one that looks like Holly Hobbie.”

Ungermann is survived by her husband; her children, Mary Schultz of Simi Valley, Ralph Kelley Ungermann of Los Altos, Phillip Steven Ungermann of Tucson; Eileen Miller of Rawlins, Ky., and Van Ausdal; 24 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. A daughter, Susan Jancovich, died in 1987.

A service will be held today at 11 a.m. at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 3645 Moorpark Road in Thousand Oaks. Funeral arrangements are being made by the Pierce Brothers Griffin Mortuary in Thousand Oaks.

Ventura County obituaries are published free of charge as a public service to readers. Obituaries are based on information provided by mortuaries.