Bells toll for van Bergen family Chances are you've heard a van Bergen bell. The fine-tuned cast bronze bells ring in churches, colleges and public buildings throughout the country and in many parts of the world. In Charleston, the rich overtones resonate from St. Philip's Episcopal Church as well as St. John's Lutheran. All of which is music to the ears of Harry van Bergen, who provides those bells through a Charleston-based company that his family started in his native Holland 204 years ago. "I'm the ninth-generation van Bergen,'' he says proudly. "We are the world's premier company in providing bells. Yes, there's competition, but we think our bells sound better.'' Each bell is hand-crafted, using a custom-made mold that is destroyed once the bell is cast. Bells account for about half of van Bergen's business. The company also manufactures carillons, piano-like machines that allow the user to sit at a keyboard and operate an array of bells or play digitally sampled bell sounds. "We use all high-quality components,'' van Bergen said. "We do all the woodwork. All of our work is custom. Nothing is off the shelf.'' Giant tower clocks make up another part of van Bergen's business. The clocks are assembled in the facility and shipped to the customer. One of van Bergen's post clocks can be seen on the College of Charleston campus near Sottile Theatre. Among other services van Bergen provides are bell restorations, electrification of existing bells and creation of moving figure displays. The last in his family to still be in the bell business, van Bergen came to the United States in 1939 with his father, Harmannus Tjapko van Bergen, to exhibit two sets of bells at the New York World's Fair. Harry was 4. Both bell sets sold, and one of the buyers was James Self of Greenwood. Self, who was building a church and tower in memory of his mother, convinced the van Bergens during the installation to move to America. For the van Bergens, it wasn't a difficult decision. By that time, the Nazis had occupied Holland. The van Bergens made their home in Greenwood, establishing a bell foundry and distribution cen- ter. Harry learned the business inside and out from his father and returned to it after graduating from The Citadel in 1957. Eventually, Harry took over the company and moved it to Atlanta before ultimately shifting to Charleston in 1986. The company operated out of a rented building on Maybank Highway before moving into its current location near the Pelican Building Center. While van Bergen's customers are mostly churches and colleges, occasionally the company sells to individuals. A few years ago, van Bergen filled an order for pop-singer Michael Jackson. "He lives in a Spanish-motif house in Beverly Hills (Calif.) and wanted to put a bell tower on his property that would ring when someone pressed the doorbell,'' van Bergen said, adding that the bell weighed about 500 pounds. But colleges and churches remain van Bergen's bread-and-butter. One college that will always remain close to van Bergen's heart is The Citadel, where a bell tower provided by his uncle in 1954 still stands. With the help of an endowment he has set up, van Bergen hopes to one day restore the now unfunctional tower to its original working condition. As for today, van Bergen said business couldn't be better. He said sales are up 40 percent over last year. "The millennium seems to be bringing out the installation of bells throughout the country,'' he said. "People want to ring in the millennium.'' Reprinted from The Post and Courier