Bernard Andrew Megrey

Bern was born in July 1950 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and passed away peacefully at home on October 1, 2010. Although his love for the sea was apparent in many aspects of his life, first and foremost, Bernard was a beloved husband, an awesome and amazing father, and loyal, true friend. He attended football and soccer games, Scout Courts of Honor, dance recitals, and teacher conferences. He attended all his children’s functions and every year participated as a judge in their annual science programs. He played chess with Chris and Nick and was the knight in shining armor when playing pretty princess with his daughter Sarah. He gave piggy back rides, cleaned boo-boos and had very interesting art projects with the kids. Bern was a sounding board for his teens, a driving coach, and a strong counsel whenever needed. He and his wife, Ronnette, took many trips to vineyards all over the world and collected wine. He loved movies. He was famous for his family bonfires at the beach. He and Ronnette loved to swing dance. They loved attending live concerts together and in recent years their teens joined them in seeing the “oldies”, such as James Taylor, BB King, Jackson Browne, Crosby Stills Nash. Bern and Ronnette would smile as they left the concerts hearing the children talking about downloading this “new” music they heard to their iPods. Together the family fished, camped, hiked and enjoyed all the hot springs Washington has to offer. Bernard loved to take the family squiding and used the opportunity to teach the kids how to dissect squid as there was always a science lesson to be learned, and then Ronnette taught them how to cook it. The family traveled extensively together and he taught the children how to navigate many airports and foreign lands. An absolute must was teaching currency exchange on every foreign adventure. He was Mister Fix-It around the house and loved his on-going remodeling projects, except plumbing.

Bernard would always reach for Ronnette’s hand and kiss her no matter where they were. The last email he sent to her was when they were lying in bed reading the paper and watching the morning news at the Chicago Hilton while Bern was recuperating. The subject line read, "Who loves you" and the message was, "I do." He was lying right next to her when he sent her that message. He shared with Ronnette that the doctor told him he would be in “working order” again in 2-4 weeks and then he gave her a wink and a grope. That was her Bernie - ever loving, ever playful. Ronnette shared, “Bernard was the most fun, caring, loving man I've ever known. He reminded me daily how much he loved me and he was the love of my life.”

Along his educational pathway, he earned an Associate of Science degree (1971), a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cleveland State University in Ohio (1974), a Masters in Environmental Science from Miami University of Ohio (1978); and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington (1989). It was during his doctoral research that he began working for the U.S. NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service at the Northwest and Alaska Fishery Science Center in Seattle. He was assigned to the Groundfish Assessment Group preparing the first stock assessment for this newly discovered walleye pollock fishery in the Gulf of Alaska.

His work enabled a team of scientists to provide timely forecasts of abundance and biomass to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. This required innovative analysis of the very short time series that was available for pollock. He became a permanent employee in August 1987 and was charged with integrating fishery and research vessel assessment data into a more complete assessment procedure to forecast stock size and composition. Bern was reassigned to the Fisheries Oceanography Coordinated Investigations (FOCI) Program in 1987 where his charge was to develop recruitment prediction models and oversee the analytical personnel within that Program.

During his tenure in the FOCI Program, Bern continued to work on recruitment prediction, but also broadened his focus from single species to ecosystems. The Gulf of Alaska recruitment prediction model that he developed for walleye pollock is one of the few predictions that incorporate both environmental and biological data and are based on an underlying mechanistic model. Bern helped to implement a series of Individual Based Models at the Center, some of which are still in use today. More recently, he was engaged in a national/international effort to construct integrated end-to-end fisheries ecosystem models.

Bern worked tirelessly for several professional organizations, most notably AFS, ICES, GLOBEC (ESSAS) and PICES. He served terms as President of the AFS International Fisheries and Computer User Sections. AFS recognized Bern’s lifetime achievement in 2009 with the Oscar Elton Sette Award for sustained excellence in marine fishery biology through research, teaching, and / or administration. Bern was on the editorial board of the ICES Journal of Marine Science from 2001 to 2007 and a current member of the Working Group on Data and Information Management. He actively suggested new Theme Sessions for the Annual Science Conference and presented at those meetings. Within PICES, Bern served as Co-Chairman of the MODEL Task Team of the PICES/GLOBEC Climate Change and Carrying Capacity (CCCC) Program, chaired the Technical Committee on Data Exchange (TCODE), led the Marine Ecosystem Model Inter-comparison project and was a member of the Science Board. PICES recently recognized his achievements federating the member countries meta-databases for the North Pacific with the PICES Ocean Monitoring Service Award (2009, w. S.A. Macklin).

Just prior to his death, Bern served as the lead liaison for fisheries issues in the U.S. Mississippi Canyon 252 Command Center in Washington, D.C.

Bern was gregarious, loved a good party, and was enthusiastic about new ideas and technologies that could advance science.

Friends and family around the world will miss Bernard’s gentle spirit, smile, and contagious laughter. Bern had many friends and colleagues in the scientific world, but his first love was his family and he always made sure each one of them knew that. He was 60 years old at the time of his untimely death. He leaves behind his wife, Ronnette, sons Christopher and Nicholas, and daughter Sarah, mother Anna Marie Megrey, brothers Joseph Megrey, Robert Megrey, David Megrey, and sister Catherine Megrey.

A memorial celebration of Bern's life is scheduled at Bleitz Funeral Home, 316 Florentia Street, Seattle on Saturday, October 9, at 2 p.m. Bern was very active in both ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) and PICES (North Pacific Marine Science Organization), and concerned with the need to train and cultivate young scientists, it is hence his family's preference that in lieu of flowers, donations be used to establish a fund that can support the travel and participation of students with various backgrounds and from various countries and cultures, in joint ICES/PICES activities. One meaningful event that Bern would have supported is the PICES/ICES Early Career Scientists Conference to be held in Spain in spring 2012. As he was once a struggling student himself, he would likely have appreciated the value of travel grants for students to test the waters in such international forum.

To make a memorial donation, please send checks (USD or CAD) or bank drafts (any currency) to:

North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES)

P.O. Box 6000,

9860 West Saanich Road,

Sidney, B.C.,

Canada. V8L 4B2

Questions regarding donations can be addressed to Ms. Christina Chiu ([email protected]) at the PICES Secretariat.