By Frederick N. Rasmussen|September 20, 2009
David M. Berry, a lifelong transit enthusiast who later became a Maryland Transit Administration bus driver, died of liver failure Sept. 8 at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was 45.
Mr. Berry was born in Baltimore and raised in Govans, and graduated from Polytechnic Institute in 1982.
"When he was 5 years old, he decided he no longer wanted to be a garbage man, but a bus driver," said his mother, Gwendolyn Berry, a retired Waverly Press proofreader, with whom he lived in the Loch Hill section of Baltimore County.
As a child, Mr. Berry collected Matchbox models but when he got older, he turned his attention to collecting models of streetcars and buses and became "quite knowledgeable about them," his mother said.
"He also spent a lot of Sunday afternoons at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum," she said.
After graduating from high school, he held several jobs, including being a deliveryman for Johns Hopkins University Press, before being certified as a bus driver for D.C. Metro in 1990.
"It was his dream come true," his mother said.
Mr. Berry later worked for Yellow Transportation in Baltimore before becoming a bus driver for the MTA in the late 1990s.
"He was a favorite of the elderly ladies along his route who always surprised him with gifts at Christmas," Mrs. Berry said.
Mr. Berry, who worked out of the MTA's Kirk Avenue bus barn, retired in 2001 because of failing health.
He enjoyed listening to all types of music and was a fan of classic TV shows such as "The Beverly Hillbillies," "I Love Lucy" and "Sanford & Son."
At Mr. Berry's request, no services were held.
Also surviving are an uncle; and several aunts and cousins.
- Frederick N. Rasmussen
