Background
Berry was born in Paris, a descendant of the Van Rensselaer family of New New York
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Walter Rensselaer Berry
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Harvard University; Saint Mark"s School. Columbia Law School.
Career
After attending Saint Mark"s School and Harvard, he took a law degree at Columbia University, practicing law in New York City, Washington, District of Columbia, and Paris, where he pursued a career in international law and diplomacy. After serving as a judge at the International Tribunal of Egypt from 1908 to 1911, he settled in Paris for the remainder of his life and became a strong advocate of France, tirelessly promoting its cause in the United States when World War I broke out in 1914. He served as President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris from 1916 to 1923.
After the war he vigorously opposed both Germany and the Soviet Union.
Geoffrey Wolff in his life of Harry Crosby describes Berry as a fashion plate well over six feet tall. Caresse described him to me very much as she did in her careless memoirs—slimness, thinness, wearing a morning coat and striped trousers like a diplomat and highly polished button-shoes.
His arms were long and like pipestems. He could be witty, if a little on the pedantic side.
His manner with women (said Caresse) was "gallant and wicked." Something frigid and formidable about his countenance, very secretary
