Timeline

Some key events in Bertha's and Paul Bonart's Lives...

1939	Starting in a small apartment in Copacabana, they spend the next several years in Brazil. They were both arrested in 1944 because an edict was passed that no German or Italian could be on the street after 6pm. In a separate incident, Paul meets dictator Getulio Vargas and has Ray Ban glasses made for him. They could never truly become full citizens of Brazil.
1947	They leave Brazil to immigrate to the United States.
1952	After being stateless for 12 years, they obtained U.S. citizenship.
1952	They move back to Brazil. Paul continues his employment with Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. Up to 1959 he was their South American manager, and president of their Brazilian organization. They lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 1959 they returned to Rochester N.Y. so Paul could take charge of the new International Division, and 3 years later he became Vice President of the Company. During this time, Bausch and Lomb became the leading Optical Company in South America. Paul supervised the construction of factories of ophthalmic and other optcal products in Brazil and Argentina. He gave regular lectures at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil about new techniques in eye refraction and instrumentation. In 1964, he and Bausch and Lomb's International Division received the National "E" Award for excellence in exporting American made products.
1967	Paul and Bertha move to Calistoga, California
1978	They move to Berkeley, California. Paul renewed his past studies of the violin and viola. (Teacher: Felix Khuner). He played in trios, quartets and in a local orchestra. Bertha became a successful artist (painter, sculptress, and print maker). She attended several working seminars with Yasuo Kunioshi, Max Beckmann, Hans Hofmann and others. Apart from group shows and private collections, she had her own shows in Brazil, Napa (Mondavi), several in San Francisco and in many Berkeley galleries.
1993	Bertha dies. Paul later marries Margaret Spence, whose husband had also recently died. They and their former spouses knew each other from the days they lived in Brazil, so their families already knew each other well.
2000	Paul moves to Huntington Beach, CA with his second wife Margaret. She had been a ceramic artist, painter and sculptress. Under her former name "Margaret Spence" she had many national and international shows, received gold and silver medals in public exhibitions, and her ceramic creations were considered to be unique and path breaking.