Jerry Berry 1935-2006

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills; For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Poem by Walt Whitman...

Jerry Berry has left us feeling a great loss. Those of us that knew him as a friend, as an employer and as a guest. His greatest legacy was that we heard repeatedly, "he made us feel welcome, whenever we came in." No Innkeeper could ask for a better epitaph.

There will be a celebration of his life, and his deeds at the Captain's Wheel, Sunday, November 12, at 2:00 PM. This will consist of a potluck dinner, and what we assume will be a rambunctious jam session consisting of the music and musicians he loved so much...