BGSU professor taught statistics, education research

6/11/2006

BOWLING GREEN - Stewart Berry, 88, a professor emeritus at Bowling Green State University, died Wednesday in Wood County Hospital here of congestive heart failure.

Mr. Berry, who taught graduate-level statistics and research in BGSU's educational foundations and inquiry department, retired in 1984 after 28 years of teaching at the university.

"He enjoyed teaching. And he was very fair, generous, and compassionate," his daughter, Jeanne Berry, said.

"It was really most important for him that all his students did well. Statistics is hard, and so he gave his students as many chances as they needed to really understand it."

Before joining the BGSU faculty, Mr. Berry at different times taught education at Miami University, Ohio University, and Ohio Wesleyan University.

Mr. Berry also helped develop the specialist and doctoral degree programs in educational administration for BGSU in the 1950s and was co-author of a 1970s textbook titled Statistics for Educators.

Mr. Berry, who was born in Cincinnati and raised in Watertown, Conn., was a Taft School graduate with bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Alabama and a doctorate from the University of Cincinnati, all in education.

An Army Air Corps veteran of World War II, Mr. Berry served two tours of duty as a communications and security officer - from 1943 to 1946 and with the Air Force from 1950 to 1951 - in India, Labrador, and Greenland before he was honorably discharged with the rank of captain.

In his free time, Mr. Berry enjoyed swimming, sailing, and horseback riding.

Mr. Berry was a member of First Presbyterian Church, Bowling Green.

His other memberships included the China-Burma-India Veterans Association, Phi Delta Kappa, Kappa Delta Pi, Iota Lambda Sigma, Theta Xi, the American Educational Research Association, and the Optimist Club of Bowling Green.

Surviving are his wife of 56 years, Helen; daughters, Jeanne Berry and Cynthia Cummings; two grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday in First Presbyterian Church, Bowling Green, where visitation will be after 10 a.m. Tuesday. Arrangements are by Dunn Funeral Home, Bowling Green.