Richard (Dick, “Gamps”) Lindabury Berry died peacefully at home with his family on August 18, 2016 in Darien, Conn. He was 91. Lois Boots Berry, his wife of nearly 64 years, survives him.
Richard Berry, 91, died at home on Thursday, Aug. 18.
Dick was born on Dec. 5, 1924 in Short Hills, N.J. His parents were Lucy Van Saun Lindabury Berry and Robert Lawrence Berry, a U.S. Navy captain and naval aide to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
He attended the Short Hills Country Day School; and graduated from the Choate School (1942) and Princeton University (class of 1946). During World War II, Dick served as an ensign in the Navy as a communications/signals officer in the North Atlantic.
At the end of the war and following his graduation from Princeton, he moved to Seven Gates Farm on Martha’s Vineyard to restore his grandparents’ house on Indian Hill in West Tisbury. The Berrys’ Martha’s Vineyard roots trace to the post-Civil War period.
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— an obituary from Edward Lawrence Funeral Home
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He first met his future wife, Lois, at a Seven Gates Farm clambake in 1947. They moved to Bump-Along Road, Darien in 1954. Their cars featured license plates “Bumpa-1,” Bumpa-2″ and “Bumpa-3.”
Dick’s business career spanned many years and included the American Brake Shoe Company, the American Cyanamid Company and Lillard, Berry, Bishop & Parker Management Consultants in New York City.
His true loves, apart from his family, were gardening and furniture refurbishing. He was a member of the Darien Beautification Commission. He enjoyed wrestling his 1960s Gravely tractor through underbrush, notwithstanding a near fatal encounter with a yellow jacket hive.
Dick was a long-time member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Wee Burn Country Club and the Princeton Club of New York.
Dick was very close with his immediate family, and his wife, children and grandchildren were the love of his life.
In addition to his wife, Lois, he is survived by his son, Richard Kingsley Berry and his wife Carla Clay Berry of New Rochelle, N.Y., and their children Matthew, Eliza and Susannah Berry; Virginia Berry Ouellet and her husband Richard P. Ouellet of Seattle, Wash.; and Lois Berry Meyer and her husband Jeffrey S. Meyer of Darien and their children Caroline, Allie, Mallory and Kendall Meyer.
His sister, Lillie Berry Smith, and brother, Robert Lawrence Berry, Jr., predeceased him.
A funeral service is planned for Friday, Sept. 9 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Darien. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Dick’s memory to PAWS (Pet Animal Welfare Society, 504 Main Ave., Norwalk, CT 06851 (or online, here), or Darien EMS-Post 53 P.O. Box 2066, Darien, CT 06820 (or online, here).