Val Roy Berryman

EAST LANSING — Visitors to the Michigan State University Museum may not have known who Val Berryman was, but it's likely his handiwork was in every display case they saw. The Williamston resident, who served as curator of history for the museum since 1967 and was a 50-year staff member of the museum, died Friday after a brief fight against bone cancer. He was 72. MSU President Lou Anna Simon wrote a note to Berryman after she heard he had gone into hospice. She never had a chance to send it. "Michigan State has been very blessed to have extraordinarily talented people whose names most people don't know," she said, "people who are real path-breakers and have remained at the institution and ... made the institution even better as a result. I think he falls into that category." Berryman created countless exhibitions during his MSU tenure, and was especially well-known for the annual Christmas exhibits put on by the museum. Many of the Santas displayed came from Berryman's own extensive collection — in fact, "Mr. Christmas" was a nickname. His research specialties included rural life and agricultural history, photographic history with emphasis on stereo photographs, worldwide Christmas customs, graphic arts as they relate to the packaging and advertising of products and commodities, and the history of Michigan State University. Museum director Dr. Gary Morgan said he knew Berryman to be a dedicated curator and someone who generously shared his knowledge. "He was prepared to work with anybody — students at the university, (local) school students, members of the public and faculty — in sharing his encyclopedic knowledge of Michigan history and his overall love of history," Morgan said. Very few, Morgan said, have been more devoted to both history and using historical objects to connect people with their heritage. Former museum director C. Kurt Dewhurst, a colleague for more than 35 years, recalled Berryman as someone with an intense interest in objects from his own street and around the world. Dewhurst also remembered Berryman's willingness to give of himself. "How often did people call the museum or bring something in and ask, ‘Can you identify this?' If he couldn't identify it, he would say, ‘Let me do a little work on this and get back to you.' It's a service museums provide, and he did it extraordinarily well," Dewhurst said. The last exhibit on which Berryman worked, "Adventures in Time and the Third Dimension: Through the Stereoscope," will open in the spring. Dewhurst said Berryman had given his entire collection of stereo photographs to the museum about 10 years ago. No services are planned. "He wanted to be remembered for his work at the museum. He always felt so fortunate to work there," Dewhurst said. "Val did what he loved to do almost through to the end. Who of us could hope for more? History was more than a discipline, it was a life for him, and it showed," Morgan said. "His was a good life, a productive life, and Val will be well-remembered." — LSJ staff writer Matthew Miller contributedto this report.