George P. Berry
1898-1986
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George Packer Berry was born in Troy, New York in 1898. He graduated from Princeton and went on to John Hopkins Medical School.
After practicing medicine for several years, Dr. Berry became the head of the department of bacteriology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine where he contributed to the understanding of the mechanisms of viral infections and resistance and was an early researcher on the role of viruses as a cause of cancer.
During the Second World War, Berry conducted research on the medical effects of nuclear weapons, and was at Bikini for the 1946 tests of the bomb.
After the war, he enjoyed a remarkable career as an administrator, serving as an associate dean at the Rochester School before accepting an appointment at Harvard Medical School in 1949.
Over his 17 year tenure as dean of Harvard, Dr. Berry was regarded as highly effective and was credited with shaping the quality of medical education in a scientifically explosive era. Among his major accomplishments, he modernized medical education, oversaw the merger of Harvard Medical School and its seven affiliated teaching hospitals into the Harvard Medical Center, and doubled the school's endowment.
