OBITUARY: Charlotte Michal "Mike" Berry

Charlotte Michal "Mike" Berry, 72, died in Fairport, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester, on Aug. 12.

She was born in Harrisburg attended first and second grades in Ridgway and third and fourth grades in California. The rest of her elementary and high school was in Harrisburg. She was the valedictorian of the class of 1958 and cum laude from SIU. She was accepted in the graduate program at Dartmouth and was their first woman student. The college newspaper ran her picture under the headline "First Lady Of Dartmouth." While there the faculty and graduate students coined the beginning computer language.

After graduation she returned to Illinois to teach at the prestigious New Trier High School. She followed her husband Thomas V. Berry to Lynchburg, Va., where she first taught in the public high school and later in the Seven Hills School. After the death of her husband, she began many years of teaching in the Virginia Episcopal School where she continued her career until her retirement.

Her final years of teaching were as an adjunct instructor at Lynchburg College. When her illness became acute, she was moved to Fairport, N.Y., where her daughter lives.

Michal was preceded in death by her father, John F. Foster, and her husband, Thomas Vincent Berry.

She is mourned by two children, Heather Mckechney (Michael), her daughter of Fairport and her son, Thomas Vincent Berry (Deborah) of Alexandria, Va.;

five grandchildren, Duncan, Colin and Elizabeth Mckechney and Layne and Mark Berry; her brother, John F. Foster (Lana) of Sylmar, Calif.; and her mother, Lucyella Foster of Harrisburg.

Michal was known for her expertise in knitting. At one time she did ski sweaters for a Vermont resort and even did the silk ribbon sweaters for the bride and bridesmaids of a Nashville wedding. She was a member of the Peakland Methodist Church in Lynchburg where she was their outstanding hand bell ringer and often did solo performances ringing as many as 16 bells.

The memorial service and her burial will be in Lynchburg.