On Sunday, May 5, 2024, Terry Alan Berger of Englewood, Florida, died suddenly and unexpectedly several days post-surgery. He was born, November 14, 1946 in Stillwater, Minnesota. He was 77 years young. He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Leslie Candance Berger; his daughter, Blair Kristen Berger; son-in-law, Jasper Buitenhuis; his nephew, Dustin Berger, wife, Ayla, and children, Kinsley, Kayden, and Jackson; and niece, Brooke Berger and husband Bennett Hardy. Terry was preceded in death by his daughter, Emma Alyse Berger; brother, Scott Pawnee Berger; sister, Lyle Rae Altenbach; and parents, Louise and Lyle Berger.
Terry graduated from Waukesha High School (1964). He earned his BSc at Carroll College in 1968 (Waukesha, Wisconsin) where he was recognized as the outstanding senior in physical science. He began his graduate work at the University of Florida (where he met his wife), but moved on to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to obtain his MSc in analytical chemistry. From there, he went to Purdue University (Indiana) before moving to England to attend Imperial College of Science and Technology (University of London, UK) for his doctoral work, which he completed in 1976. He then accepted a visiting professorship in Brazil at the Universidad Federal de Pernambuco. In 1977, he moved his family back to the United States, and worked as a project leader for Life Systems, designing and building life support systems for spacecraft and submarines. Later settling in Newark, Delaware, where he and his wife raised their two daughters.
Terry lived passionately in all aspects of life, As a young man, Terry was an exceptional athlete, in his youth he was a decathlete, played football, basketball, hand ball, and loved scuba diving. He was an avid hiker and outdoorsman. He was a wonderful artist. His favorite mediums were watercolor and pen and ink. Unfortunately, at 23, he was afflicted with Rheumatoid Arthritis and also had to deal with breathing problems with Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency. Throughout his life, Terry continued to enjoy fishing and boating.
Professionally, Dr. Berger is considered by many to be the father of modern supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC). He worked as Senior Scientist for Hewlett Packard for 18 years, started his own businesses; Berger Instruments and Aurora SFC. Then, later became a consultant for Agilent Technologies in Germany. In 2004, Terry received the Martin Gold Medal, awarded by the Chromatography Society of Great Britain, one of the most distinguished awards in his field. In 2008, Carroll College recognized Terry as their Distinguished Alumnus Award for Professional Achievement. More awards and recognitions are pending. Terry was a brilliant inventor, having applied for and/ or received over 25 patents throughout his career. He received the R&D 100 award for one of the 100 most important technical developments of the year twice. Dr. Berger taught passionately and strived throughout his career to advance the capabilities and understanding of the science having published 2 books, 111 scientific papers, and given hundreds of oral presentations in the U.S. and internationally. Lastly, he continued to do research in his laboratory, and engage in his work until his death.
He was an amazingly involved husband, father, uncle, and friend. As a tribute to his life a memorial will be held in the near future. There will also be a professional website (to be announced soon) available to leave memories and pictures of Terry aside from this one.
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