Flo Steinberg, 83, cared about ‘right thing’

LVAIL ” Longtime Vail resident Florence “Flo” Steinberg, who died Tuesday, was passionate, feisty and always straight-forward, family members said.

“My brother and I used to say, ‘Flo is a buzzsaw,'” her daughter, Kristina Steinberg, said Wednesday.

Flo Steinberg died Tuesday at her daughter’s home in Alamosa. She was 83.

She and her husband, Dr. Tom Steinberg, Vail’s first doctor, moved in town in 1965.

Flo Steinberg was active in the community as it grew from its infancy. She helped start the Eagle County Historical Society and served on the town sign committee.

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“She cared a whole lot about the community and the political situation and whether people were doing the right thing,” Tom Steinberg said.

Tom Steinberg was a Vail councilman for many years, and Flo was part of that leadership, he said.

“She pushed me,” Tom Steinberg said. “It takes a team.”

Just as she was straight-forward, she expected other people to be straight-forward as well ” but respected others’ opinions ” Kristina Steinberg said.

“She was hard on people who didn’t give their best,” she said.

And Flo Steinberg could strike up a conversation with anyone, her daughter said. Kristina remembered her mother meeting a Vietnam veteran in a hospital waiting room and inquiring about how he lost his arm, even if others might have avoided the topic.

“She was as good as anyone at talking to strangers,” Kristina Steinberg said.

Flo Steinberg, a native of Askam, Pa., was a coal miner’s daughter and the youngest of 12 children.

She earned a nursing degree and met her future husband in an operating room in New York. The Steinbergs were married in 1952 and lived in Missouri and New Jersey before moving to Vail.

She was an actress in Vail drama troupes and enjoyed summer concerts such as the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival.

She is survived by two children, Erik Steinberg of Steamboat Springs and Kristina Steinberg of Alamosa, and one grandchild, Kristina Steinberg of Steamboat Springs.

Arrangements will be announced later.

Staff Writer Edward Stoner can be reached at 748-2929 or estoner@vaildaily.com.