George William Berard of Lompoc passed away on Saturday, September 3rd 2011 at his home. He was 79.

George was born to Edward Arthur and Irene Cote' Berard of Fall River Massachusetts. He was preceded in death by his parents, 2 of his sisters Lorraine Napert and Lillian Ramunno, also of Fall River, Massachusetts and a younger brother, Francis of Dallas, Texas.

George was raised in Fall River with his brothers and sisters. He started school in the small town and learned to speak English only after he started school. Up until then French was the house-hold language.

He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1950 where he met and married his soul mate, Theresa Cath-erine Peters while they were each stationed at McClellan Air Force Base in Sacramento, Califor-nia in 1953.

George and Theresa moved to the Lompoc Valley in 1974 when he retired from the Air Force at Vandenberg AFB.

George and Theresa continued in life together and raised 10 children. Catherine ( Don) Abell of Powell, Tennessee; Thomas ( Janet) of Palmdale, California; Andrew (Deborah) of Lemoore, California; Jannette (Michael) Entsminger of Tucson, Arizona; Michael (Lara) of Tehachapi, California; Alice (Chris) Lambert of Italy; Elizabeth (Gary) Hill and Pauline(Keith) Imano, all of Lompoc; Edward (Deborah) of Lemoore, California and Eric (Deborah) of Columbia, South Caro-lina.

He is survived by his older brother Wilfred Berard of Sacramento, California, an older sister Rita Lapointe of Swansea, Massachusetts, his wife Theresa, all 10 of his children, 28 Grandchildren and 20 Great-Grandchildren.

George was very active in the Lompoc Elks Lodge 2274 and was the Elks chairperson for many years, working with the tri-county blood banks in several blood drives. He worked for many years with the Elks Lodge on their annual Elks youth Christmas Party. He also was an avid member in the Lompoc American Legion Post 211. The Berards are quite active in the La Puri-sima Catholic Church. He enjoyed growing fruit and vegetables at home.

Viewing has been scheduled for Thursday, September 8, 2011 from 4-8 am at Starbuck-Lind Mortuary in Lompoc with a Catholic Mass scheduled for 10 am Friday at La Purisima Catholic Church. There will be an additional memorial service at Lompoc Elks Lodge #2274 at 1 pm fol-lowed by a reception.

Inurnment of ashes has been scheduled for 10 am, Monday 12 September at Lompoc District Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked for donations to be made to ELKS Lodge 2274 in the fam-ily name to be donated to the California-Hawaii Elks Major project to benefit disabled children.

The family would like to thank all of those who have had his family in their thoughts and prayers.