Obituaries

Donald Paul Berens, a Rochester, N.Y., entrepreneur and a longtime and devoted friend of Cornell, died Friday, Oct. 29. He was 74.

He was the former president of Hickory Farms Sales Corp., a group of 113 specialty cheese stores throughout the Northeast. He also was the former president of Rubber Stamp Heaven Inc., a Pittsford company he co-created in 1992; and he was the owner of D. P. Berens Inc., a retail consulting service; White Mountain Creamery Stores; Lock, Stock & Barrel gifts; and Phelps Florist, which he co-owned with his daughter, Liz. In 1992, he was involved with the founding of the Independent Bank of Rochester.

Berens was born in Massillon, Ohio, in 1925 and graduated from Washington High School. He began his college education at Ohio State University, studying chemical engineering. On the third day after his 18th birthday, he joined the U.S. Marine Corps and served from 1943 to 1946. In 1945, the Marine Corps sent him to Cornell to study in an accelerated program. He completed two years of civil engineering and a year of economics between 1945 and 1947 and graduated with an A.B. degree in 1947. He also was an energetic campus leader who played on the varsity baseball team, was president of the Student Council, chairman of Spring Day, and a member of Acacia and Quill and Dagger. He also met his wife of 51 years, Margaret Schiavone Berens, while they were students together at the university.

A devoted Cornell alumnus, well known and loved throughout the Cornell community, he served on the Cornell Board of Trustees and as a trustee emeritus and presidential councillor. He was one of the founders of the Cornell Entrepreneur and Personal Enterprise Program and was national chair of the Cornell Fund during the 1980s. He also was an active member of the Cornell Club of Rochester and served on many Cornell committees and advisory boards, including the Johnson Graduate School of Management Advisory Council.

He was an energetic fund-raiser for the university and was particularly interested in scholarships and athletics. He also provided great leadership for the study of entrepreneurship through the creation, with his wife, of the first endowed professorship at Cornell in entrepreneurship. In 1993 he was named Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year.

He also was proud of knowing all the Cornell football players by name and was a strong inspiration to players and coaches alike. In January of this year, he was named the first Lifetime Member of the Cornell Football Association and was honored at a banquet at the university.

He is survived by his wife, Margi, who shared in his many Cornell and entrepreneurial endeavors. He also is survived by four children: daughters Mary Berens, Julie Berens and Elizabeth Berens, and son Don Berens Jr.; and six grandchildren.

Gifts in his memory can be made to Cornell University, c/o Barlow Ware, 55 Brown Road, Ithaca, N.Y. 14850, or to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Box E, 1275 York Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10021.

Friends and colleagues of Lynn Shannon Proctor, a Cornell graduate student in applied and engineering physics, will meet today, Nov. 4, for a a community gathering/support meeting at 3 p.m. in 701 Clark Hall on campus.

Proctor, whose hometown is Tallahassee, Fla., died last week at her residence in Ithaca. She was 22. The cause of death is under investigation, according to Cornell Police.

Walter Cohen, vice provost and dean of the Graduate School, said, "Everyone who has heard the news is shocked and saddened by Lynn Proctor's death. On behalf of the graduate faculty, I want to extend my sympathy to her friends and especially her family. The loss is also the university's; in her brief time here, Lynn had already begun to make a contribution to the intellectual life of the campus."

Alexander Gaeta, associate professor and director of graduate studies in the School of Applied and Engineering Physics, said, "We are deeply saddened to learn of Lynn's death. She was a highly promising graduate student, and her death is a great loss to our department."

Proctor received her A.B. degree in physics from Dartmouth College, where she was the recipient of the Robert C. Byrd Fellowship.

A funeral will be held today at 3:30 p.m. in the Blessed Sacrament Church in Tallahassee.