RYNN BERRY

BERRY--Rynn. 96, of Manhattan. Died peacefully in his sleep on December 20, 2011. Beloved husband of Nancy for 64 years; father of their children, Charles, Peter and the late Eliot, and of Rynn, Jr. by a previous marriage; and grandfather of Christopher, James, Nicholas, Peter, Samuel and Shirley. Rynn was one of the leading patent and trademark litigators in the country and a longtime partner of Fish & Neave (formerly Fish, Richardson & Neave and now merged with Ropes & Gray). He joined in 1941 and, after service as an officer in the Army Air Corps in the Pacific during World War II, returned and spent his career at the firm. He served as a managing partner and helped corporate clients protect their crucial intellectual property. A keen and skillful squash and tennis player, he was a national squash doubles champion and instilled in his family a great love of racket sports. He graduated from Yale College in 1937 and Yale Law School in 1941. He was president of Yale's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the last surviving member of his class in his beloved senior society, Berzelius, and a member of a renowned class of the Corby Court law fraternity. For more than 30 years he was secretary of Yale's Class of 1937, maintaining his skills as a clear and effective writer and his close ties to the Yale community, for which he had great affection. Services will be private. Contributions in Rynn's memory may be made to Yale University Skillman Associates, c/o Friends of Yale Squash, Box 208216, New Haven, CT 06520.