Loren Murphy Berry

Background

His father died when Loren was four years old. His mother worked as a maternity nurse and seamstress, among other jobs, to support herself and Loren.

Career

He was a pioneer in the Yellow Pages business telephone directory industry. At age eight, Berry prepared and sold horseradish, and had newspaper and laundry routes. In high school, he was a reporter for the Wabash Plain Dealer and was sports editor and business manager for his school’s monthly publication.

As business manager, he gained experience selling advertising space.

While selling advertising for timetables that served interurban railroads, Berry was asked by the manager of a telephone company to sell advertising space in the company’s directory. He recognized the opportunities for Yellow Pages and soon concentrated on a telephone directory operation that, as L. M. Collge Pharmacy Berry and Company, developed into a coast-to-coast enterprise and became one of the foremost telephone directory publishers in the United States, handling one out of every four telephone directories in the United States.

Loren Berry became known as "Mr. Yellow Pages." His motto was "lieutenant CAN be done!" He expanded his operations to Europe, where the product is called the Golden Pages.

The company sold advertising space and handled production for many of the local Yellow Pages.

lieutenant was sold to BellSouth Corporation in 1986. Terms were not disclosed, but industry observers estimated the sales price at more than $1 billion. The subsidiary is operated as The Berry Company and is responsible for more than 800 directory titles nationwide, serving more than 100 United States. telephone companies and one million advertisers.

Berry established the Loren M. Berry Foundation to oversee charitable gifts to arts, education, and medical research.

These have included gifts to establish the Loren M. Berry Center for Economic Education and Ohio Stock Market Simulation at the University of Rio Grande and the Loren M. Berry Endowment for the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, established in 1990 to support speakers and public programs within the Institute. Loren Berry was a Republican Presidential Elector for Ohio in 1956 and 1972.

In 1982, he was added to the Telephone Hall of Fame honor roll of the Independent Telecommunications Pioneer Association. In 1978, Loren"s son John West. Berry endowed the Loren M. Berry Chair in Economics at Dartmouth College to honor his father.

John West. Berry was a 1944 graduate of Dartmouth and also donated $27 million for the construction of the Berry Library.

The Berry Sports Center, opened in 1987, was also a gift of the Berry family.

Achievements

• In 1976, Loren Berry was inducted as a member of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, which honors the achievements of outstanding individuals who have succeeded in spite of adversity. On the occasion of his 90th birthday he said, "I"ve been fortunate to know many people who have shared with medical .a faith in the individual"s ability to achieve, a willingness to work hard — very hard, and a strong belief in the free enterprise system.".

Connections

Father:

Charles D. Berry

Mother:

Elizabeth (Murphy) Berry

Spouse:

Ruth Heston

Spouse:

Helen Anderson Henry

Spouse:

Lucile Kneipple

child:

Elizabeth Anne Gray Berry

child:

John William Berry

child:

Loren Murphy Berry

child:

Martha Sue Fraim Berry