The Man Behind the Berry Sports Center

When John W. Berry '44 arrived on the Dartmouth campus in the fall of 1940 he decided to try out for the freshmen football team. A strapping youngster from Dayton, Ohio, Berry felt he was ready for the challenge college football presented.

"After about the third scrimmage I limped back to my room in Streeter Hall and was barely able to get into bed," Berry recalls. "I only weighed 165 pounds and I played guard. I decided right then that I had come to Dartmouth for an education instead of getting killed on the football field."

While John W. Berry might have been too small to play college football he became a giant in the business world.

Berry is listed among the Forbes 400 richest individuals in the United States with a personal worth estimated at $300 million. That puts him in the same financial bracket as William Randolph Hearst Jr. and Ted Turner and above Jean Paul Getty.

"Like most people that are included on that list, I think John's embarrassed by it," says Addison Winship '42, a friend of Berry's and a retired vice president of the College. "He's not used to things like that being public."

Although he's been known to sometimes travel in the same circles as Frank Sinatra, Jack Nicklaus, and Johnny Carson, Berry has the reputation of being a "regular guy." It's a trait he inherited from his father, L. M. Berry. "I think my father was pretty down-to-earth. He used to have a saying that he always told the truth; that way he didn't have to remember what he said."

John W. Berry himself will be remembered at Dartmouth for a long time to come. In June 1984, he pledged $5 million the largest gift for athletics in the College's history - towards the new sports center that will bear his name. The focal point of the $8.5-million John W. Berry Sports Center is a 2,100-seat varsity basketball arena.

There will also be two full-sized practice courts, a weight-training fitness room, squash and racquetball courts, a dance studio, multipurpose rooms, and new spectator facilities. The seven new squash courts, including one for special exhibitions, will give Dartmouth one of the finest collegiate facilities for that sport in the country.

But who is John W. Berry? For starters, he is the 63-year-old chairman of the board and chief executive officer of L. M. Berry & Cos., a business his father began in 1910. Loren M. Berry was known as "Mr. Yellow Pages" for pioneering the idea of selling advertising in a telephone book.

The elder Berry started his company shortly after moving to Dayton, Ohio, from his native Wabash, Ind., with only $200 in assets. "It was a one-man company," says John Berry. "My father was it."

By the time of L.M. Berry's death in 1980, the company's annual sales were reported at more than $300 million in the United States and Canada.

While L.M. Berry built the foundation of the family's empire, John Berry deserves credit for putting on the roof. And nobody could have ever predicted it would happen. Not even John himself. On his freshman registration form, in the space reserved for career plans he wrote, "possibly advertising."

He did indeed follow in his father's large footsteps and has been an important part of the company for more than 40 years. He took over as chairman and CEO in 1973. Berry began working for his father when he was in high school and after a stint in the Army he rejoined the company permanently in 1946. At the time, the company employed 75 people. Now, it has 2,500 U.S. workers and an additional 3,000 abroad.

As a friend once said at a banquet honoring Berry, "Your fingers might have done some walking, but `your legs weren't far behind."

As busy as he is, Berry, isn't the type to insulate himself from the rest of the world. You can telephone his company's headquarters in Dayton and within a few seconds Berry will be on the other end making small talk to someone he's never met before. "How's the weather in Hanover?" he asks, getting the conversation rolling.

He's cordial and cooperative, but he seems uncomfortable when attention is focused on him. "He has an incredible amount of pride, but he doesn't like to be in the limelight," says Dartmouth Athletic Director Ted Leland.

Berry has been in the Dartmouth limelight before because of his family's generous contributions to the College. In 1980, Loren Berry left $1 million to Dartmouth in his will; two years earlier the family gave $1 million to establish the Loren M. Berry Chair in Economics.

When Berry announced at his 40th Class Reunion that he was pledging $5 million towards the new sports center, the spotlight grew even larger. "Anyone would be less than truthful if they said they don't like attention," says Berry. "I think the reason for the attention is the important thing. You can get attention in a lot of different ways. Some of it isn't always so good. This [sports center] is something I know is very good for the Dartmouth community so I'm honored by all the attention."

It would seem natural that a man of his stature in the business world be cautious about people who are only interested him for his bank account. But Berry doesn't worry about such things. "I think you get to know quickly which people only like you for your money," says Berry. "It's pretty obvious. They aren't people that really become your close friends. Every person only has so many close friends, but a lot of acquaintances."

At the urging of an uncle, Berry enrolled at Dartmouth without ever visiting the campus, All he knew about Dartmouth was what he'd read and seen in books. "I got off the train in White River Junction and came up [to Hanover] on the bus with some other students and the first thing I saw was Baker Tower. Everything was lush and beautiful; it was quite an experience."

Like most Dartmouth alumni, it's an experience he's never forgotten. "The Dartmouth community has been closer-knit than most universities. It's the people who have made Dartmouth what it is over the years. An ability to attract a certain type of individual who continues after they leave Dartmouth to still be a part of it." One of those individuals Dartmouth attracted was Berry's son, Glen '66.

After his brief collegiate football career, the elder Berry joined Sigma Chi and played a variety of intramural sports. He is still an avid golfer and for 18 years played in the program at the Bob Hope Desert Classic. "Sports and physical exercise are an important part of an individual's experience at Dartmouth," says Berry. "You develop your mind and your body and your values."

While John Berry was a student, the College's basketball program was one of the best in the country. With players like Gus Broberg '41 and George Munroe '43, Dartmouth played for the NCAA championship twice during Berry's undergraduate years - losing to Stanford in 1942 and then in a heart-breaking 42—4-0 decision to Utah in the 1944 finals.

Now Berry is involved in a project that's considered an important aspect of rebuilding Dartmouth's basketball program. For 10 years, Dartmouth administrators, coaches and students have been dreaming about a new sports arena a building to complement Thompson Arena, Leverone Field House, and Memorial Field. But as President McLaughlin puts it, "Dreams and visions don't become reality until someone makes that happen."

In the case of Dartmouth's need for a new sports complex, John W. Berry is that someone who made it happen. "It is people like John Berry who make Dartmouth what it is," says McLaughlin.

Ad Winship '42, who has since retired as vice president in charge of development and alumni relations, is the one often credited with convincing Berry to make his magnificent contribution. "Ad Winship, more than any other individual, is responsible for this gift," says Bill Craig, Berry's' classmate and co-chairman, with Frank Hartmann '43, of the national fund-raising committee for the project.

Berry and Winship have been friends since their undergraduate days. "I got to know John best on the way to Skidmore," says Winship, joking about their escapades of 40 years ago.

Later, while Winship worked for the College, he often called upon Berry. "Over my 25 years here I was the man who had primary contact with John," says Winship. "John has been a good friend of Dartmouth for a long time."

It was in October 1983 when Winship first approached Berry about the sports center. The College was wrapping up the capital campaign that had raised $204 million, but only $2 million of that had been for athletics. President McLaughlin had placed the sports center high on his agenda, according to Winship, but the fund-raising for the project "wasn't going anywhere."

So Winship headed for Dayton to meet with Berry and "planted the seed." That seed took a while to germinate. Berry told Winship that he would have to think about it before committing himself to such a large project. "I think it was a responsible reaction," says Winship. "John didn't say no right off, but he responded that it would be difficult."

For the next seven months following that meeting in the fall of 1983, Winship and McLaughlin were in "constant contact with John."

After Berry's $5 million contribution was announced last June it was hoped construction could begin within a year. But by this summer it was evident that it wouldn't. In Berry's words, the project, "was a little bit short to be properly funded." President McLaughlin flew to Dayton in June and asked Berry for more help. Berry smiles when he's asked why he gave more money after already contributing $5 million. "President McLaughlin is a pretty good salesman."

Ground-breaking ceremonies were held in early August. "To have one's name associated with something of this magnitude is very exciting," says Berry. "This project is something I know is going to be very good for the Dartmouth community."

As John W. Berry '44 put it, "Sports and physical exercise are an important part of anindividual's experience at Dartmouth. You develop your mind and your body and yourvalues."

THE FALL SCOREBOARD Football (1-5) (1-2 Ivy) Princeton 3-10 New Hampshire 7-23 Holy Cross 14-17 Colgate 28-54 Harvard 7-17 Cornell 20-17 Field Hockey (4-7-1) (2-2-1 Ivy) Pacific 2-1 Springfield 1-3 Princeton 1-1 ot Connecticut 1-5 Cornell 0-1 New Hampshire 1-5 Holy Cross 2-1 Northeastern 1-2 Yale 1-0 Harvard 0-2 Massachusetts 0-1 Brown 3-1 Men's Tennis (2-0) (0-0 Ivy) N. England Champ. Tie for 3rd Boston College 7-2 ECAC Champ. 6th Vermont 5-4 Women's Tennis (5-1) (0-0 Ivy) New Hampshire 7-2 Tufts 9-0 ECAC Champ. 11th Boston U. 6-3 Boston College 4-5 Providence 7-2 Vermont 9-0 Men's X-Country (6-0) (4-0 Ivy) Birmingham (Exhib.) 18-40 Dart. Invitational 2nd Northeastern 24-35 Massachusetts 18-41 Columbia 18-45 Yale 18-45 Harvard 19-44 Brown 21-36 Women's X-Country (5-1) (2-1 Ivy) Vermont 18-41 Dart. Invtl. 3rd Middlebury/UMass Won 2 Yale 26-31 Harvard 32-26 Brown 19-36 Men's Soccer (3-6-1) (1-2-1 Ivy) Massachusetts 2-3 Princeton 2-1 Pennsylvania 0-0 ot Middlebury 1-2 Connecticut 0-3 Williams 1-2 New Hampshire 2-0 Harvard 0-1 Vermont 2-0 Cornell 0-1 Women's Soccer (4-7-1) (1-3-1 Ivy) Princeton 0-0 ot Vermont 0-1 Cornell 0-2 Merrimack 7-0 Holy Cross 0-4 New Hampshire 0-3 Rhode Island 3-1 Columbia 12-0 Massachusetts 0-6 Harvard 0-2 Smith 5-2 Brown 0-2 (Scores as of Oct. 28, 1985)