Tim Berry, Newsday marketing designer, dies

Caricaturist, graphic artist, videographer, gourmet chef, lover of pugs -- Tim Berry, a senior designer in Newsday's marketing department, touched the lives of his colleagues over the years with his creativity and generous nature.

A 24-year Newsday employee, Berry, 44, suffered heart failure unexpectedly in his sleep in his Coram home and was found dead Thursday morning by his wife, Suzanne Berry.

Tim Berry was also the son of Warren Berry, 78, now retired, a longtime Newsday editor and correspondent, who said of his son, "He was a truly gentle soul. I'm so proud of him."

"His reach was all over -- throughout the whole building," said Dale Cole, 57, community affairs project manager.

Over the years, Tim Berry's work for the marketing and advertising staffs ranged from creating ads and ad campaigns for use in the newspaper, to promotional signage for stadiums, to a Newsday pro bono documentary project for an area environmental group. More recently he shot and edited promotional videos for the advertising sales staff, such as a montage set to the song "Empire State of Mind."

Berry also freelanced a wide range of caricatures for editorial use, including one for the newspaper's cover that depicted the Yankees' Joe Torre and the Mets' Bobby Valentine for the 2000 Subway Series.

Berry's co-workers were reeling, some in tears, on hearing of his death as they arrived for work Thursday. Michelle Kaszycki, a senior designer, told of their lunchtime bantering just the day before about his beloved pugs, Raz and Blu. When she moved to a new role, Berry was her "life preserver," she said, always happy to brainstorm and help fine-tune her work. "There are so many reasons to be sad" at his passing, she said.

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Berry also loved cooking and creating original guitar music with his wife, a former Newsday graphic designer, whom he met on the job. For years they had said "hello" in the hallways, Suzanne Berry said, but friendship, then love, bloomed when they were assigned to the same department. At that point, "we worked a desk apart" and were together for 15 years before she left Newsday, "and it was glorious."

Berry's earliest art mentor was his mother, Moya Berry, 69, said his father.

"When Tim was barely 2, we had one of those old-fashioned kitchen tables with an enamel metal surface," he said. "Whenever his mother set the table, she would always lay out a spoon and a magic marker for Tim" to use to draw on the white enamel table top.

Berry was born Oct. 1, 1967, in Manhattan, was a graduate of Northport High School, and studied art at the State University of New York at Geneseo.

On a summer internship, he impressed his Newsday bosses so much that he was offered a job, said his father, and he started as a full-time staffer in early 1988.

Besides his wife and parents, who live in Eaton's Neck, he is survived by a brother, Conor Berry of Hampden, Mass.; a sister, Kate Berry of Los Angeles; and a niece.

A gathering for friends and family to celebrate his life will be planned for a future date, his wife said.