Berry was a founding board member of Michigan Golf Hall of Fame in 1982, and was elected president of the Golf Writers' Association of America in 1984. He was influential in lifting the ban on female reporters in the locker room at The Masters, and instrumental in admitting public players who met the minimum golf handicap into the Michigan Women's Amateur Championship. After 1993, he worked as a freelancer and wrote columns for PGA Magazine, Chicagoland Golf and the Michigan Golfer. He was inducted into the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame in 2003, he received the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism in 2007, and was inducted into the Michigan Women's Golf Association Hall of Fame in 2017.
From 1959 to 1971, Berry worked on the sports staff of the Detroit Free Press.[3][4][5] He continued to report on hockey, golf, baseball and college sports, in addition to skiing and Michigan State Spartans football.[2] He covered the 1961 U.S. Open played at the Oakland Hills Country Club, which was his first major golf championship.[3] He felt that the Free Press "had the best staff and one of the best sports sections in the country in the 1960s", and that the victory by the Tigers in game seven of the 1968 World Series was a career highlight.[2] He was elected vice-president of the National Hockey League Writers Association in 1970,[6] then became president in 1971 when it was renamed to the Professional Hockey Writers' Association (PHWA) to distinguish itself from teams in the league.[7] He retired as president in 1972, but remained as a director for the PHWA.[8]
While reporting on golf, Berry preferred to leave the media tent and get among the crowd to "hear the cheers and groans".[2] At The Detroit News, he began writing the "Golf Page" with expanded coverage on players, tournaments and golf courses.[9] He worked with local PGA professionals and the Detroit Recreation Department to grow junior golf programs,[3] and wrote the Guide to Michigan Golf.[10] In 1982, he was a founding board member of Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.[9]
In 1984, Berry was elected president of the Golf Writers' Association of America (GWAA).[3] In the same year, he was influential in lifting the ban on female reporters in the locker room at The Masters.[4][10] He later retired as the GWAA president, and served as its secretary-treasurer from 1990 to 1998.[3] During the 1990s, he was instrumental in admitting public players who met the minimum golf handicap requirement into the Michigan Women's Amateur Championship.[4][10] His work was since credited by the Michigan Women's Golf Association as contributing to the growth of women's and girls' golf in Michigan.[10]
Later career
After retiring from The Detroit News in 1993, Berry became a freelancer and wrote columns for PGA Magazine, Chicagoland Golf and the Michigan Golfer.[3][9] He assists in interviewing Michigan State University journalism applicants for the GWAA scholarship, and became a partner in the media relations firm, All About Golf, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.[2] By 2007, Berry covered more than 70 major golf championships during his career.[3][5]
The GWAA recognized Berry with a writing award for a series of articles in The Detroit News in 1992.[9] He received the Golf Association of Michigan Distinguished Service Award in 1997.[10] In 2003, he became the second journalist to be inducted into the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame. In 2007, he received the PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Journalism.[2][3] In 2008, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Michigan Golf Course Association.[11] He was inducted into the Michigan Women's Golf Association Hall of Fame in 2017.[4]
