Bob attended high schools in Panama and at Fort Bliss. He graduated from

Sullivan’s Preparatory School in Washington, DC in 1950.

Bob’s sister Pat recalls that he played baseball in high school and was a catcher on the team. While in Panama he developed a love for golf and played in several junior tournaments. He was also an accomplished pianist. Although Bob’s sister was in college while he was in high school, she recalls that he was outgoing, very popular and always had lots of friends. Susie (Hart) Forman, wife of Robert ‘Skip’ Forman, met Bob when her father and Bob’s father, both USMA Class of ’24, were stationed at Fort Bliss. Bob dated her twin sister. She remembers Bob as being a very nice person who pole vaulted and played golf in high school.

Being an Army brat with broad exposure to military life, Bob decided early on that he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a career officer in the United States Army. Before graduating from high school, he aggressively pursued an appointment to West Point. He received a congressional appointment from Texas and entered the Academy on July 5, 1950, soon joining the ranks of Company D-l. Bob is remembered by his classmates as being a very friendly and outgoing person who was always comfortable in handling the day-to-day rigors of plebe year.

On Sunday, December 30, 1951 at Hamilton AFB, CA, Cadet Robert W. Berry Jr. boarded an Air Force C-47 bound for Stewart AFB, NY. He was on his return trip to West Point following Christmas leave with his family at Hamilton Field, near San Francisco, where his father commanded the Western Anti-Aircraft Command. Recognizing a need to refuel before flying further and receiving directions for a refueling stop at Williams AFB near Phoenix, AZ, the pilot became disoriented and the plane crashed into the side of a mountain. There were no survivors. Of the 28 people on board, 19 were West Point cadets. Eleven were members of the Class of 1954.

Bob’s sudden death was a crushing blow to his father, mother and sister,

Patricia. Robert Ward Berry Jr. was buried in the National Cemetery located at the Presidio of San Francisco. His father and mother were later buried next to Bob. At age 19, Bob departed from this world much too early in life, well before he had an opportunity to display his potential as a future officer and leader in the United States Army.

From the last stanza of the poem “If”

by Rudyard Kipling:

“If you can fill the unforgiving minute

with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

 Yours is the earth and everything that’s

in it,

 And which is more you will be a Man

my son!”

Bob, your time with us may have been short but you lived life to the fullest and your work on earth was "well done." Be thou at rest.