John Berry

[Michele]

In another thread, I read about the passing of John Berry this past November. I was unaware of his death. If anyone knows the date or an address for his family, I’d appreciate them sending me any information, michele.triplett@kingcounty.gov

I’d never met John. When I started in fingerprint work, John was one of the well-known names that everyone knew. He had been the editor of the Fingerprint Whorld from 1975-1991 and frequently contributed articles to different publications. In 1989, he was awarded the British Empire Metal by the Queen for his service in fingerprint work. After retirement, John continued to be involved in fingerprints; researching, publishing and being involved with the Fingerprint Society. I don’t remember how I was initially put in contact with John but he wasn’t big on computers so most of our contact was done through letters. If I was looking for articles, John would find the articles, make copies and mail them to me in the US. Some of the articles I wanted were several hundred pages but John never mentioned the inconvenience, the cost of making copies, or the cost of shipping; he was always eager to help me without asking for anything in return. I’m guessing that it was in 2002 or 2003 that John was doing some house cleaning and he mailed me dozens of early copies of the Fingerprint Journal. I felt like it was Christmas and couldn’t believe he’d share these with someone he’d never even met. I sincerely appreciated John giving me these items and over the years I’ve spent countless hours looking through them to find information for other people. I felt like this was the least I could do since John entrusted them to me.

John was a wealth of information, always eager to help those in need, and greatly contributed to our discipline during his life. As far as I’m aware, he was approximately 85 years old and suffered from cancer over the past few years.

Even though we never met, I’ll always consider him a mentor and a friend. I am very sad to hear he’s gone.

Michele