RAPAPORT... Camilla Dietz Bergeron, a connoisseur of jewelry and cofounder
of the estate jeweler that bears her name, has died at the age of 76, The
Tennessean reported.
Bergeron (pictured) died last Sunday surrounded by her family and loved
ones, according to the report.
Born in Covington, Georgia, Bergeron graduated with honors
in Economics from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. After earning
her degree in 1964, she moved to New York, where she joined the
investment-analysis department of Chase Manhattan Bank. Several years later,
she joined Seiden & De Cuevas, a small institutional brokerage and
investment-banking firm.
Within 10 years of graduating, Bergeron, together with four
partners, formed Furman, Selz, Mager, Dietz and Birney, which provided
investment-banking services and research on small and medium-sized companies.
Xerox Corporation, the printing company, later acquired the firm.
That deal enabled her to invest her share of the sale
proceeds and launch a business buying and selling antique, period and estate
jewelry. She teamed up with Gus Davis in 1989 to form estate-jewelry company Camilla
Dietz Bergeron, which she and Davis ran as business partners.
Bergeron was copresident of the American Society of Jewelry
Historians. She also became a board member of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust,
and was in demand as an appraiser and lecturer. Organizers of balls and
fund-raising events often chose the company she cofounded to act as their
official jeweler, The Tennessean said. She taught summer courses at the University
of Maine on how to wear jewelry, and supplied jewelry for photography in magazines
such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.
She received an award from the Museum of Art and Design in
2017, and was a founding member of the Committee of 200, a women’s leadership
group.
Bergeron was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in her 30s.
When walking became hard for her, she began traveling Manhattan’s sidewalks on
a scooter. She leaves behind her husband of 31 years, Jean Maurice Georges
Bergeron, and her sister, Harriet (William) Nunnally of Social Circle, Georgia,
according to the report.
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