Shawn "Bergie" Bergstrom never forgot what it was like to be a kid — and that knowledge helped him transform a three-church Lutheran youth program into a confederation of 10 Seattle-area churches and more than 200 children.

Mr. Bergstrom, 34, and his wife, Dinah, 28, who worked at the Seattle Art Museum, were killed Monday after their car collided with another vehicle south of Cheyenne, Wyo.

The Seattle couple were driving in a construction zone when their car spun sideways into oncoming traffic, according to the Wyoming Highway Patrol.

Mr. Bergstrom died at the scene and his wife died several hours later at a Cheyenne hospital.

The Bergstroms were returning from a vacation in Kansas, where they had visited their parents and helped Mr. Bergstrom's parents repaint the family farmhouse.

"We actually talked him into coming home," said Mr. Bergstrom's mother, Doris Bergstrom, of Courtland, Kan. " 'How about we have Christmas in July and paint the house?' " she asked them.

Mr. and Mrs. Bergstrom attended Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., where they met and studied music, said Lyle Bergstrom, Mr. Bergstrom's father.

After graduating with a degree in music, Mr. Bergstrom accepted a job as youth pastor at a Lutheran church in Great Bend, Kan., his father said. He held that position for a few years until he married and moved to Seattle in 1998 to be the first director of Lutheran Youth of North Seattle (LYONS).

Mrs. Bergstrom found a job at the Seattle Art Museum, where she eventually was named assistant manager of admissions, according to a statement released yesterday by the museum.

Mr. Bergstrom took off in his new position at LYONS, which then was a newly created confederation of three North Seattle Lutheran church youth programs. The churches' youth-ministry needs would be better served if one larger program were created instead of three small ones, its creators believed.

A positive reputation for the program quickly spread to kids and families throughout the Lutheran community, helping the LYONS program grow quickly, said Candi Olson, LYONS administrator.

"If you asked someone to describe what LYONS was, they would say it was Bergie," she said. "He just made sure the kids felt welcome."

Before the Bergstroms left for the Kansas vacation, they led a group of high-school kids on a weeklong trip around Washington, learning and doing community-service projects, such as picking up trash at a state park. The theme was creation and recreation, said Olson.

"You either had to really enjoy high-school kids or be crazy to take 20 kids on a trip for five days," she said.

The Bergstroms used their musical education in the Lutheran youth group.

Mrs. Bergstrom was known for her abilities on the keyboard, telling Doris Bergstrom once that she had played the piano long enough not to remember when she started playing, her mother-in-law recalled.

The LYONS group put on an annual musical dinner-theater act to raise money to supplement the summer trips for high-school and middle-school students, said Pastor Laurie Jones from Ballard First Lutheran, which was Mr. Bergstrom's church. Mr. Bergstrom would write and direct the production and his wife would compose the music, said Jones. This year they raised $12,000, she said.

Friends, family and children from the LYONS program were just learning about the accident yesterday as church members worked to arrange a vigil for the couple, which took place last night.

"Bergie never forgot what it was like to be a kid," said Pastor Erik Wilson Weiberg from Ballard First Lutheran. "What I've been telling kids is that everybody who knew Bergie knew he loved them. ... It's just a pretty devastated circle of people."

Friends and co-workers of the Bergstroms' are planning a memorial in Seattle. There will be a funeral service in Kansas.

Mr. Bergstrom is survived by his parents, Doris and Lyle Bergstrom; and two brothers, John and Karl, who live in Kansas.

Mrs. Bergstrom is survived by her parents, Randal and Linda Bollinger in Kansas; and her sister, Julie Karl, who lives in Waitsburg, Walla Walla County.

Brian Alexander: 206-464-2349 or balexander@seattletimes.com