In December, 2010, Richard Berry donated appreciated stocks valued at almost $7000.00 to the AAVSO to commission another Bright Star Monitor survey telescope and asked that it be named in honor of his brother Martin Bruce Berry.
Richard recalled how he, middle brother Stephen, and then Martin used the basement as their own private laboratory. "The basement of our house was our workshop. In high school the ping-pong table was my spectroscopy lab. When his turn came, Martin turned the ping-pong table into an electronics lab to explore video signal pattern generation."
Martin earned a BSEE from University of Iowa 1975, and a MSEE University of Iowa 1979. He worked in measurement related electronics for 15 years with both a scientific and industrial focus. Work usually involved research and development of unique or high performance techniques. For example, Martin participated in the design and testing of the University of Iowa's PLA instrument flown on the Galileo mission to Jupiter.
"I expect a few atoms that were once in his skin cells are now in Jupiter's atmosphere", says Richard.
Martin was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1994. Richard said, "I think the best friends he ever had were members of his cancer support group." He died three years later.
So why would Richard dedicate a survey telescope in his brother's honor?
"I think that Martin would get a kick out of the concept of the Bright Star
Monitor: a computer-controlled telescope and sensor patiently gathering
scientific information night after night. I've told family members that I expect
the BSM will have a useful lifetime of 10 to 15 years, and take about 1,000,000
images. I think that is a good way to honor Martin's memory."