Empty Sky: NJ State 9/11 Memorial
Ridgewood Country Club Memorial
Conseleya 9/11 Memorial
Dewitt 9/11 Memorial
Montclair State University 9/11 Memorial
East Newark 9/11 Memorial
Fair Haven 9/11 Memorial
Freehold Township 9/11 Living Memorial Tree Grove
Crescent Beach Park - Flagpole/Memorial for 9/11 Victims
"To know Joe is to walk on the sunny side of the street" is a beautiful quote from a friend that very much captures Joe's persona.
Joe's wife, Evelyn, of 32 years, stated, "He never came down in the morning without a smile on his face".
Evelyn and Joe met at a high school graduation party. When Evelyn was asked if it was love at first sight, she responded, "For me it was; he was drop-dead gorgeous".
Together Joe and Evelyn made a beautiful couple. After dating for five years throughout college, they married afterwards in 1969, and were blessed with three beautiful children: Joseph, Todd, and Kimberly.
Joe was even more beautiful on the inside than on the outside. He was very down-to-earth and kind to everyone he met. The many, many tributes and kind messages written about Joe after he died are a true testament to a life well-lived and a man well-loved.
Evelyn said that she and Joe loved each other more and more as time went on. They were so in love with each other and told each other all the time.
As successful as Joe was in his career, he was home for dinner, coached his children's sports teams, and spoke to Evelyn 3-4 times a day. "He always took the phone call", Evelyn stated while discussing how Joe always took time out of his busy schedule for his family.
New York Times Portraits of Grief
Joseph John Berry, a man who left big tips and who once urged a nervous friend to go through with her wedding because "marriage is a wonderful thing," simply hated the idea of a vacation without his three children. Never mind that they are all grown now, with the youngest 21 and the oldest 27. Whether it was a trip to Italy or one of their annual pilgrimages to Aruba for New Year's Eve, "our children came with us," Evelyn Berry said. "All three of them. All the time. Wherever we go, whatever vacation. To this day, if we're going away they're there with us.
"How many children do you know who spend every New Year's with their parents?"
To Mrs. Berry, who would have celebrated her 32nd wedding anniversary next month, this is the essential fact of her husband's life -- not the honors he collected as one of the most influential Irish-Americans on Wall Street, or the professional status he enjoyed as chairman and co-chief executive of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, an investment banking firm, but the fact that he also coached just about every team his children ever played on, from soccer to basketball.
"If anything, we were more in love today than when we first got married," Mrs. Berry said.
Mr. Berry, 55, who worked on the 89th floor of 2 World Trade Center, died on his wife's 54th birthday.
"The fact that he's gone is the greatest pain," she said. "The day it happened is immaterial."
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