Until selling the business to his brother and sister-in-law January of 2014, Eric Bergeson was the third generation owner of Bergeson Nursery in Fertile, MN, a business started by his grandfather in 1937. He wrote a weekly column for several newspapers in northwestern Minnesota for fifteen years. He has published five books, including Pirates on the Prairie, which the Minneapolis Tribune called "a Minnesota cultural and historical treasure." His sixth book, A Treasury of Old Souls, became available for purchase on September 1st 2015.
Eric graduated from Fertile-Beltrami High School in 1982. He attended Northwestern College in Roseville, MN, and received his bachelor's degree in history from the University of North Dakota in 1986. After completing a Bachelor of Science in Social Studies at Moorhead State University in 1988, he returned to UND where he earned a master's degree in history.
During college, Eric studied at Cambridge University in England, student taught in Wellington, NZ, and studied in Warsaw, Poland.
Over the years, Eric has been a frequent speaker and performer in northwestern Minnesota. When needed, Eric has taught American history courses at the University of Minnesota, Crookston.
Eric recently finished a five-year tenure as Chairman of the Board of the Northwest Minnesota Foundation. He is acting chair of the Fertile-Beltrami Community Fund.
In 2011, Eric was awarded a prestigious two-year Bush Fellowship to study eldercare. During the fellowship, he revisited New Zealand to study that nation's system of eldercare. He also worked to bring a new assisted living facility to his hometown of Fertile.
He lives in Fertile, MN with his partner Lance Thorn. He is currently working on new writing projects, including a book about his years spent tending his great aunt Olive, a colorful character who passed away at age 103 in February of 2015.
