"He was approximately the coolest guy ever — he could build a computer out of cardboard and tin foil — and that's not really an exaggeration," said Will Scott, a 27 year old software developer in Austin, Texas, who went to high school with Berg.
Scott recalled a summer science program he attended with Berg.
"Nick had an entire department of his own that he basically invented called Bergology — it was this weird combination of computer engineering, electronics, craftsmanship — the kids loved it," Scott said. "He was really good at it — he had an energetic personality and a really good attitude — he would really get along with anybody."
"Everybody's crushed. Everybody I've talked to is just floored," said band teacher James Morrison, who knew Berg all through high school.
The manner of Berg's murder was particularly horrifying, Morrison said.
"I expected to be interviewed some day about how successful he was, that he had saved a Third World country," said Morrison, who choked back tears as he spoke.
He said Berg visited the school around Thanksgiving 2003, and told about having recently made a trip to Africa.
"He said he showed a village how to better make bricks. That's the kind of kid he was."
Shop teacher Harry "Skip" Best said Berg was "really interested in bridging the gap between the haves and the have-nots."
Best described Berg as "an all-around Renaissance man."
Morrison said he doubted that business was Berg's principal concern in going to Iraq. "A kid like that just wanted to help," he said.
Charlotte Knighton, who taught Berg's 8th grade science class, remembered as an "individualist," who would carve his own path in life.
Speaking from her home in Bozeman, Montana, Knighton said that Berg was a complex young man — funny, dramatic, compassionate, and a humanitarian.
"He had gone to Africa when he was in college and he was so taken by the starving people over there that when he came home it was difficult for him to even eat," she said.
Berg's parents said he had "all but finished" his engineering studies at Cornel before dropping out. He just didn't want to be a student anymore, said his father, Michael.
He went to work for a businessman in Texas who built radio towers. His customers, the father said, included little radio stations from Virginia to New York. He later ended up working for big network radio stations, including those owned by Sunshine, Clear Channel and Citadel.
Berg liked to climb high, a risky endeavor. In 2000, before the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, he worked for a rigging company stringing wires on the roof of the convention building.
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