Sidney Berry led men into combat in two wars and was wounded in both conflicts, yet the most trying period the highly decorated officer faced in a distinguished Army career occurred during his stint as head of the U.S. Military Academy, when a cheating scandal roiled West Point just before the first female cadets arrived on campus.
"That was the most difficult assignment he ever had in his life because it was such a difficult time," his daughter, Nan Berry Davenport, told The Associated Press Thursday.
She said her father, a retired lieutenant general, died of complications from Parkinson's disease on July 1 at a retirement home in Kennett Square, Pa., outside Philadelphia. He was 87.
Berry was superintendent of the academy in 1976 when a major cheating scandal engulfed West Point, with 152 cadets eventually expelled for violating the academy's code of honor. The scandal particularly pained Berry, a member of West Point's Class of 1948 and a former history instructor at the academy.