George T. Berry Dies at 81; Was N.Y. Power Authority President
Contact Stephen Shoenholz (914) 390-8165 stephen.shoenholz@nypa.gov
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October 25, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
George T. Berry, former president and chief operating officer of the New York Power Authority and a longtime consultant in the electric utility industry, died on Oct. 23 at his home in Ancramdale, N.Y. He was 81 years old.
The apparent cause of death was a heart attack, Mr. Berry’s son Jan said.
As an engineer for Charles T. Main, Inc., Mr. Berry worked on the design of the Power Authority’s St. Lawrence-Franklin D. Roosevelt hydroelectric project in Massena and designed the major hydraulic elements of the Authority’s Niagara hydroelectric project near Niagara Falls.
He joined the Power Authority staff at the Niagara Project in 1961 and was promoted to director of power utilization in 1968. From 1973 until his retirement in 1982, he served in the Authority’s top staff position, first with the title of general manager and chief engineer and later as executive director and as president and chief operating officer.
During that period, the Authority completed the James A. FitzPatrick and Indian Point 3 Nuclear Power Plants, which it sold to Entergy Corp. in 2000; the Charles Poletti Power Project in Queens; and a 765-kilovolt transmission line from the Quebec border to Marcy, near Utica.
After leaving the Power Authority, Mr. Berry worked until the time of his death as a consultant to public and private electric utilities.
“George Berry was a major figure in the history of the New York Power Authority and of New York State’s electric utility industry,” Power Authority Chairman Joseph J. Seymour said. “During his career of more than 20 years at the Power Authority, including nearly a decade with responsibility for its day-to-day operations, the Authority and the people of the state benefited from his keen intellect, sound judgment and engineering expertise. He has left his mark on the Authority, through the projects that he helped to build and the standards that he set.”
Mr. Berry was born in Gage, Okla., on Oct. 20, 1924. He graduated as the valedictorian of the local high school and later earned a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Oklahoma A&M College (now Oklahoma State University) and master of science and master of engineering degrees from Harvard, where he specialized in soils mechanics and structural design. Mr. Berry, a licensed professional engineer, also studied at Georgetown University and the University of Puerto Rico.
He worked as a civil engineer for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from 1949 to 1953, with involvement in a wide range of flood control, water supply and hydroelectric systems. He was also a chief planner for a hydroelectric project in Pakistan.
While working at the Niagara Power Project, Mr. Berry served as a lecturer in a graduate course in water resource planning at the State University of New York at Buffalo and as a consultant to the university’s cooperative program on curriculum planning with the University of Paraguay.
In 1969, he became the first United States citizen to win the Keefer Gold Medal of the Engineering Institute of Canada, sharing the award with John B. Bryce, a Canadian, for their co-authorship of a paper on the Lake Erie-Niagara River ice boom.
Mr. Berry is survived by his wife of 60 years, the former Ana Brunet Casals; three sons, Paul of Denver; Jan of Guilford, Conn.; and Mark of Eugene, Ore.; and seven grandchildren.
