Leon Berger; Founded a Group for Retired Workers’ Comp Judges
Leon H. Berger, 91, founder of the California Retired Workers’ Compensation Judges Assn., died Thursday of kidney cancer in Reseda.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Berger had small roles as a child actor in silent films and vaudeville. Educated at UCLA and the USC Law School, he served in World War II and afterward with the United Nations Rehabilitation Corps in Germany.
Berger worked as an attorney for the California Division of Labor Law Enforcement and was deputy labor commissioner before he was named a workers’ compensation judge in 1958. He founded the retiree association and served as its first president.
During his retirement, Berger read law textbooks for recordings to aid blind law students, and worked as an arbitrator in dispute resolution.
An avid hiker, he climbed Wallace Falls in the Washington Cascades when he was 90.
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