Richard "Dick" Albert Berry

Richard (Dick) Albert Berry, son of Rev. Samuel Wallace and Adelaide Hanger Berry (deceased) and older brother of Samuel (deceased), was born on September 2, 1934, in Midway, Tennessee and grew up in Timberville, Virginia. After surviving polio in his teens, Richard graduated from Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia and completed a Master of Theology Degree at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in 1959. As part of his studies, he did an internship at St. John Lutheran Church in London, England. After ordination he developed a Lutheran mission in Bristol, Tennessee and then served for six years as Associate Pastor at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Springfield, Virginia where he met Virginia (Ginny) Rae Bowers, a public health nurse with three daughters, who would become his wife for the next 57 years. He ended his full-time ministry at Grace Lutheran Church, Ft. Washington, MD where he served for 28 years. While living in Fort Washington he also served 3 years as President of the Ft. Washington Civic Association during which time he built a playground in his neighborhood. His civic mindedness was not just local but global, as he helped his congregation in Ft. Washington resettle The Pintos, a refugee family from Uganda, and with Ginny befriended foreign exchange students and hosted for a year Antonietta Cacciani from Parma, Italy. He and Ginny would remain lifelong friends with Anto and her appreciative and generous family.

Dick’s ministry often focused on young people who he would take on retreat and on trips to national Lutheran youth conventions; he also served as counselor or pastor at Hungry Mother and Caroline Furnace Lutheran Camps. His love of the outdoors and his experience traveling stayed with him his whole life. He took his family on many trips, exploring baseball parks across the country and national parks in the U.S. and Canada where he and the family also spent summers at a shared lakefront home in Ompah, Ontario. On all his travels Dick would deploy his skills at photography, resulting in many albums of pictures and carousels of slides. The last major trip he and Ginny took was to Namibia, Africa, a life-long dream for both of them. Dick also was keen on continuing education and regularly attended seminars at Furman and Stetson Universities and took a sabbatical semester at Emory University. He played golf, tennis, and billiards and performed well in each, despite his polio disability.

In retirement Dick continued to serve as a supply pastor for various congregations in the Metro DC Synod – including Peace, Alexandria and Bethlehem, Annandale – until he and Ginny fully retired to The Village at Orchard Ridge in Winchester, Virginia. There they enjoyed a lively social life until health challenges prevented them from continuing to live independently. Always a team, Ginny pre-deceased Dick by four months. Dick is survived by his 3 daughters, Deborah Louise Bowers (Terry); Cheryl Lynn Istvan; and Kimberly Rae Connor; 3 grandchildren Helen Lorraine Istvan Odom (Max); Benjamin Lee Istvan (Erin); Gabriel Rae Connor; and 3 great-grandchildren; Alvin Ellis Odom; Edmund Theodore Odom; and Katherine Marie Istvan.