C. Mike Berry: Seafirst president, community leader
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Within a day of surgery and a diagnosis of cancer last October, C. Mike Berry cut the medical tubes attached to him, grabbed his shorts and tennis shoes and walked from Swedish Medical Center to his home near Pike Place Market.
Walking home in pouring rain, he befriended a homeless man, who thought Mr. Berry was homeless, too. The homeless man gave him an umbrella.
Friends and family describe Mr. Berry as an energetic man who, in the few places he didn't have a friend, would make one. He was the type of bank president who would visit a hospitalized bank employee he'd never met and befriend an elevator attendant as if they had known each other for years.
At age 81, Charles Michael Berry, former president of Seafirst Bank and a member of numerous community organizations, died July 2 of pancreatic cancer.
"He wasn't someone to sit around and let things happen to him," said Peggy Nugent, the oldest of his four children. "And he never met a stranger. By the time he sat with you for a half hour, he knew everything about you."
Mr. Berry, who died peacefully at home amid his family, was described as the "Energizer Bunny" by hospice nurses.
"He would come in the house and all of the sudden it was like a hurricane," said his youngest living brother, Shelton, 76, who lives in their hometown of Lubbock, Texas.
Mr. Berry rose from a modest background to become one of Seattle's movers and shakers during the 1970s and '80s. After growing up on a farm in Texas, he was a sergeant in the Army during World War II. He met his wife then and they moved to Olympia after the war.
Mr. Berry started as a bank teller in Olympia, and his work ethic brought him to the Seafirst presidency in 1975. He also helped found Pacific Northwest Bank.
His energy didn't stop with business ventures. He served as president of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, a trustee for the University of Puget Sound and president of Senior Services. He played a part in the battle to keep the Mariners in Seattle.
Mr. Berry was named a Seattle First Citizen by the King County Board of Realtors and King Neptune at Seafair. He even traveled to Russia and China with the Washington State Trade Commission in the 1970s to help bridge the gap between communism and capitalism.
It seemed he had a friend on every corner and knew all their names. "He was an encyclopedia of information about people," said daughter Peggy.
Mr. Berry is survived by his wife of 57 years, Claire M. Berry, of Seattle; two daughters, Peggy Nugent of Bellevue and Patti Tupper of Olympia; two sons, Dr. Robert Berry of Highland, Utah, and James Berry of Seattle; three brothers, S.B. and Shelton Berry of Lubbock, Texas, and Dan Berry of Eunice, N.M.; eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. next Tuesday at University Presbyterian Church, 4550 15th Ave. N.E.
Memorial contributions may be made to Washington DECA Mike Berry Perpetual Scholarship Fund, 9757 Juanita Drive, No. 212, Kirkland, WA 98034, or Swedish Home Health & Hospice, 5701 Sixth Ave. S., Suite 504, Seattle, WA 98018.