Obituaries - April 1, 2000

* Richard Douglas Berry; Retired USC City Planner

Richard Douglas Berry, 73, professor emeritus of city planning and urban design at USC. Born in Denver, Berry graduated from the University of Denver with a humanities degree in 1951 before entering the Army. After the Korean War, he attended UC Berkeley, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture. From 1957 to 1963, he was an associate in the architecture-planning firm of Victor Gruen Associates, directing large-scale development projects and planning for urban renewal. Berry served as a consultant for Irvine Development Co. on residential neighborhood design and site planning in 1964, for General Electric Co. on planning and development of new communities in the late 1960s and for the U.S. Department of Energy on solar energy research in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. He joined the USC faculty in 1963 and won the rank of full professor in 1975. At USC he conducted studies exploring the nature of the design process, team problem-solving behavior, and planning methodologies applicable to the building of new communities. He retired from teaching and research in 1987. On Feb. 19 of cancer at his home in Los Angeles, according to a news release Friday from USC.