It was as if Rabbi Daniel Goldberger was waiting for one last accomplishment.

Rabbi Goldberger died Monday - a day after the new Hebrew youth center was dedicated in honor of him and his wife, Ida. He succumbed to complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 83.

He was unable to attend the dedication of the Rabbi Daniel and Ida Goldberger Youth Center at the Merage Campus, which sits on the property of the Hebrew Educational Alliance. But his legacy was felt all the way from his hospital bed.

"The opening of the youth center brought him some joy in his final hours," Rabbi Bruce Dollin said in his eulogy to about 1,200 congregants who descended on the BMH-BJ Congregation Tuesday for Rabbi Goldberger's funeral.

While the Jewish community lost its spiritual leader, counselor and friend, it was Rabbi Goldberger's hope that young Jews would follow in his footsteps. He was a strong advocate for Jewish studies and encouraged his flock to visit Israel.

"I cannot recall when this sanctuary was so very filled with participants at a funeral service," Rabbi Stanley Wagner told mourners some of whom were left standing inside the synagogue.

"Make no mistake about it, this was Daniel Goldberger's community," added Sheldon Steinhauser, former regional director of the Mountain States Anti-Defamation League in Denver. "There's not a Jewish entity here that he's not touched or influenced."

Rabbi Goldberger was not only praised for his more than 50 years of service on behalf of Israel and generations of Jewish families, but also he was remembered for his compassion and ability to reach across ethnic, religious and class lines.

Admirers recalled how Rabbi Goldberger took part in the Martin Luther King Jr. marches to downtown.

"My dad believed in getting along with all people," said his son, Rabbi Menachem Goldberger, of Baltimore.

Daniel Goldberger was born in 1924 in Pennsylvania. Under the guidance of his father, who was an influential rabbi, he moved to Chicago in 1942 to study and become part of the family's fifth generation of rabbis. He earned a master's degree at the University of Chicago and was married in 1947. In 1951, Rabbi Goldberger moved to Denver "with only $50 in his pocket. That's all," his son said.

Rabbi Goldberger served his first congregation in Denver, Beth Joseph, until 1971.

His son recalled that he started his second career as a pastoral counselor for his Jewish congregation until 1979, when he went on to serve the Hebrew Educational Alliance.

In 1994, Rabbi Goldberger officially retired, though he really didn't, his family and colleagues pointed out. Struggling families and downtrodden congregants still sought him out.

"When the community was in trouble, in all humility Daniel Goldberger was the rabbi of choice," Steinhauser said.

In addition to his wife of 60 years, and his rabbinical son, Rabbi Goldberger is survived by sons David and Joel, both of Washington, D.C.; daughter Debbie Beren, of New York; and sister Sonia Goldberg, of Illinois.