Traver 'Ted' Law Berry, 97

CHESTERTOWN, Md. - Traver "Ted" Law Berry died on May 1, 2009, at Heron Point in Chestertown. Mr. Berry was 97. Born in Chatham, N.J., on Oct. 24, 1911, Mr. Berry and his sister Barbara (1908 – 2006) were the children of Henry Titus Berry and his wife, Jessie Muchmore Berry. Traver attended Chatham public schools, Lawrenceville School, and Syracuse University, from which he graduated in 1934. After college Mr. Berry worked as an accountant like his father, beginning with five years at Patterson, Teele and Dennis from 1934 to 1939, during which he studied at night at the New York University School of Business to become a Certified Public Accountant. He passed the CPA exam in 1939, and worked in the tax division of E. I. Dupont de Nemours & Company. During these years he also obtained a Master's in Business Administration from NYU. After the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Mr. Berry worked from 1942 to 1945 for the Glenn L. Martin Company, a company manufacturing warplanes. Following World War II, Mr. Berry worked as a CPA for a number of companies in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, including the Port of New York Authority and Fred Waring Enterprises, of which he was controller. He also formed his own CPA practice. In 1954, he competed with some 300 applicants to become assistant controller of Connecticut Light and Power Company (later Northeast Utilities), and also served as controller and manager of internal audit, working there from 1954 until his retirement in 1976. In 1938 Mr. Berry married Frances Mayes, and they raised their two children in New Jersey, as well as in Berlin and Glastonbury, Connecticut. For 15 years after retirement, they lived in Lewes, Del., and Fort Pierce, Fla. The couple moved to Heron Point in Chestertown in 1991, when it opened. They celebrated their 65th anniversary in 2003, and Frances died on November 4th of that year. During his Connecticut years Mr. Berry was a Navigator in the Hartford Power Squadron. In the early 1970s he sailed a Pierson 30 Wanderer Sloop in races out of Old Saybrook. For the first 10 years of their retirement, Mr. and Mrs. Berry sailed the inland waterway on their Dickerson ketch Cygnus II between Lewes and Fort Pierce. Among many remarkable qualities, Mr. Berry brought to his life great energy, determination, physical agility, toughness in the face of adversity, frugality, and sociability. He was an active horseman in his youth, and an accomplished swimmer and diver. An avid musician, Mr. Berry played the trumpet and the French horn all his life. During the summer before college, in 1930, he traveled in Europe with a band led by Jose Ferrer. The band also played on the ocean liner Bremen when they crossed the Atlantic. In college at Syracuse he had a dance band. When Mr. and Mrs. Berry lived in Connecticut, he took five years of voice lessons and was a member of the Hartford Symphony Chorale, singing once in a small group with the great soprano Beverly Sills. Throughout his life he sang in Presbyterian church choirs. In Florida, he sang with the Vero Beach Choral Society, and in Maryland, he played trumpet and French horn in the Kent County Marching Band and the Eastern Shore Wind Ensemble, and sang in the Washington College Community Chorus, Chester River Chorale, and the choir of the Presbyterian Church of Chestertown. He served as treasurer for both the Chester River Chorale and the Eastern Shore Wind Ensemble. In Connecticut Mr. Berry was President of the Kiwanis Club, and in New Jersey he served on the Florham Park town council and helped introduce light commercial zoning. Always interested in public affairs and scientific development, Mr. Berry was an optimist by nature and brought all these qualities to a lively conversation. In Chestertown, Mr. Berry was a member of Optimist International.A great believer in education and human potential, he took delight in sponsoring and encouraging the development of his employees at Connecticut Light and Power. Mr. Berry leaves two children, James Henry Berry of Bethesda, and Nancy Berry Tanner of Washington, D.C., as well as a daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Wightman Berry, and a son-in-law, John Kent Tanner. His grandchildren include, Elizabeth Frances Tanner of Washington, D.C., Jonathan Wightman Berry (Gail) of Albuquerque, N.M., Eleanor Anne Berry (Peter Zdankiewicz) of Southbury, Conn., and Patrick Griffin Tanner, who died in 1997. He also leaves four great-grandchildren, Henry Traver Berry, and Luke Alec, Paul Thomas, and Mark Philip Zdankiewicz. Services for Mr. Berry will be 1 p.m. on Friday, May 8th, in Wesley Hall of Heron Point, 501 E. Campus Avenue, Chestertown 21620. In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Mr. Berry may be sent to the Patrick Tanner Community Service Award Fund, Landon School, 6101 Wilson Lane, Bethesda, MD 20817, or the Heron Point Benevolent Fund. Arrangements by Galena Funeral Home of Stephen L. Schaech, Galena, MD.