Rodney Berry, a “tremendous community advocate” who worked tirelessly for community improvement from the mid-1970s until his retirement in 2016, died Monday.

Berry was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2014 and also suffered from Lewy Body Dementia.

His fingerprints could be found on virtually every major city project, especially those downtown, for the past 40 years.

“He was everywhere,” David Boeyink, former editorial page editor of the Messenger-Inquirer, who succeeded Berry as president of the Public Life Foundation of Owensboro, said Tuesday. “He is still everywhere you look in Owensboro. You can’t wrap your arms around everything he did.”

“Rodney Berry encapsulated the best of humanity,” Candance Castlen Brake, president of the Greater Owenboro Chamber of Commerce, said. “He personified the virtues that philosophers say are necessary to live the good life. A man of impeccable integrity, quiet courage, leadership through example and deep intellectual curiosity; he truly lived out the highest ideals.

“On a personal level, he was an encourager who always made time for people. His kindness and ability to always see the good in others set a standard for everyone around him. A man who could have succeeded anywhere, he chose to live his professional life devoted to his hometown. His untimely passing leaves a tremendous void in our community. He will be deeply missed.”

Berry’s son, Joe, who now heads the Public Life Foundation, said his father was “a tremendous community advocate. He loved Owensboro. He was devoted to his family and the community.”

Former Owensboro Mayor David Adkisson, who retired as president of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, said, “Rodney and I graduated from Owensboro High School together, but became close friends in the late 1970s, especially around the plans to improve downtown Owensboro. He became the executive director of Downtown Owensboro when I was heading up the chamber of commerce.

“There would be no RiverPark Center without Rodney Berry. He was hired as the executive director very early in the process, and he oversaw the fundraising, the design, the construction and, after it opened in 1992, the operations of the RiverPark for several years.”

Adkisson said, “As a tribute to Rodney during the 25th anniversary celebration of the RiverPark, a few of us decided to create the Rodney Berry Children’s Arts Fund for underprivileged kids to attend events at the RiverPark. Serving kids was Rodney’s real passion. Our goal was initially $50,000, but we raised almost $200,000 within a few weeks. That spoke volumes about how much people loved Rodney.”

Bruce Hager, chairman of the Public Life Foundation, founded by his father 25 years ago, said, “He was passionate about his community, and it showed in everything he did.”

He said Berry “brought people together to effect change.”

‘Grandfather of RiverPark Center’When he stepped down as president of the RiverPark Foundation in 2000 to become executive director and later president of the Public Life Foundation, they called Berry “the grandfather of the RiverPark Center.”

“He took us all the way from the concept to what it is today,” Board Chairman Jesse Mountjoy said.

Berry had worked behind the scenes with a group that was pushing for the performing arts center in the mid-1980s.

When the Kentucky General Assembly provided the seed money for the facility in 1988, Berry was hired to oversee its development.

He served as executive director from June 1988 until late 1995, when he became president of the RiverPark Foundation, the facility’s fund-raising arm.

“I love this place,” Berry said of the RiverPark Center. “I put my heart and soul into it. It’s always difficult to make a decision like this. But the Public Life Foundation will give me an extraordinary learning opportunity and allow me to immerse myself in a broad range of civic interests from health care to social issues to riverfront development and the arts.”

He said he had opportunities to manage other arts centers in other states, “but I don’t want to leave Owensboro.”

In 1978, two years after his graduation from Western Kentucky University with a degree in sociology, Berry was already busy in the community.

That year, he was co-chairman of the Owensboro Hydrofair, executive director of the Owensboro Downtown Development Committee and co-chairman of the Christmas Parade committee.

Berry was also the first executive director of the old Downtown Owensboro Inc., which worked to revitalize downtown after many of the stores moved out to the then-new Towne Square Mall.

When the International Bluegrass Music Association was formed in Nashville in 1985 and moved to Owensboro four months later, Berry became its projects director, overseeing its efforts to create such things as the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum.

‘We the People’Later, as president of the Public Life Foundation, he spearheaded “We the People” forums in 2007 and 2010, meetings that acted as a catalyst for downtown redevelopment.

Berry organized PRIDE, a city beautification project, and helped launch the Community Care Clinic to provide free dental care for those in need.

Hager said the dental clinic “wouldn’t have happened without him.”

Berry also started the PLFO’s Early Childhood Education Initiative to help preschoolers prepare for kindergarten.

About 2005, Berry began writing “Holding on to Hope,” a 412-page novel about a small group of college students who bonded during the Vietnam War.

In 2008, Gov. Steve Beshear appointed him to the newly-formed Kentucky Commission on Philanthropy.

Six years later, the Daviess County Bar Association presented Berry with its community service award.

Keith Lawrence, 270-691-7301, klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com

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In summer 2020, The New York Times coordinated a nationwide project to document the lives of Americans out of work because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study involved collaborating with 11 other local newsrooms around the U.S. The Messenger-Inquirer was the only newspaper from Kentucky in the collaboration. The resulting collection of stories was published Oct. 23, 2020, in the New York Times print edition and at nytimes.com/outofwork. The following list is the Messenger-Inquirer's local unemployment coverage from that time period; read more by clicking the "New York Times Project" header. Click on "Out Of Work In America" to go to the full