Charles Harold Berry papers

Charles Harold Berry was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1889. He graduated from Boys High School of Brooklyn in 1907 and went on to study at the Pratt Institute, a manual training school in New York. He received his B.A. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University in 1912. Deciding to teach engineering in China as a missionary, Berry registered at Auburn Seminary, but after a year he changed his plans and returned to Cornell as a graduate student and teaching assistant in engineering. He received his Master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1916 (the most advanced degree then obtainable in American engineering schools) and was an instructor and assistant professor of heat and power engineering at Cornell (Sibley College) from 1913 to 1918. In 1918 Berry was a Naval ordnance inspector for the Ordnance Inspection Department of the U.S. government, and from 1919-1925 he was technical engineer of Cornell's power plant and assistant to the chief engineer. Also during that time period he was technical engineer of power plants at the Detroit Edison Company. From 1925-1929 he was associate editor of the magazine Power. In 1928 he was appointed Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Harvard and in 1935 assumed the Gordon McKay chair, which he occupied until his retirement in 1955. He donated some of his papers (1928-1945) to Harvard in 1954. Berry joined the Northeastern University Department of Engineering faculty in 1955 and remained there until 1964.

Berry was the author of some 55 articles on technical phases of the steam power industry, and in 1954 he wrote the book Flow and Fan. He also prepared several extensive class notebooks on thermodynamics. As a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, he was active on its Power Test Codes Committee, and a member and chairman (1931-1933) of the Boston section. He was also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1931) in mathematics and physical sciences, a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, and served on the Heat Panel of the United States Bureau of Standards. Berry was also a member of the Harvard Club of Boston, the Harvard Musical Association, the Harvard Engineering Society, and the New York and Massachusetts Professional Engineers societies. He belonged to Sigma Xi and Tau Beta Pi and was an honorary member of Pi Tau Sigma. Berry died in 1965.

1889

Born in Brooklyn, NY

1912

Receives B.A. in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University

1913

Begins teaching at Cornell University

1916

Receives M.M.E. from Cornell University

1918

Works as ordnance inspector for the Ordnance Inspection Department

1919-1925

Employed as technical engineer and assistant to the chief engineer of Cornell's power plant and is Technical Engineer of Power Plants at the Detroit Edison Co.

1925-1929

Associate Editor of Power magazine

1928

Becomes a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Harvard University

1931

Becomes a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (mathematics and physical sciences); becomes chairman of the Boston Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers until 1933

1935

Assumes Gordon McKay chair, Harvard University

1954

Donates papers (1928-1945) to Harvard; Flow and Fan published

1955

Retires from Harvard; joins Northeastern University engineering faculty

1964

Leaves Northeastern faculty

1965

Dies