Pioneer in Arab-American Muslim community dies at 95
Michael Berry, a Dearborn attorney who was the former chairman of the Wayne County Roads Commission and a political pioneer in the Arab-American Muslim community, died Saturday. He was 95.
For decades, the international terminal at Detroit Metro Airport was named after him, probably the only major airport terminal in the U.S. to be named after a Muslim American. The Berry International Terminal was decommissioned in 2008 after the opening of the airport’s North Terminal.
The recognition was a symbol of his efforts to organize and help bring Arab-Americans and Muslims into the mainstream in metro Detroit, getting many of them government jobs.
“He was a pioneer,” said Warren David, an Arab-American leader who is president of ArabAmerica.com “He was such a huge institution…He was larger than life, an amazing leader in the Arab-American community…He helped a lot of Arab Americans.”
In April, the Wayne County Airport Authority voted to name its new headquarters, slated to open in 2017, after Berry. The Michael Berry Career Center in Dearborn Public Schools is also named in his honor.
A series of articles in the Detroit News in 1981 accused him of misspending and nepotism when he was chair of the Road Commission, accusations Berry said were motivated by anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice and a desire to get rid of the commission.
Born to immigrants from Tibnin, a village in what is now southern Lebanon, Berry and his family survived poverty and the Great Depression. His father, born Mohammed Berry, changed his first name to Charles, after immigrating to the U.S., according to Michael Berry’s 2007 autobiography written by Susan Griffin. Today, the Berrys are a sizable part of Dearborn’s Lebanese-American Shia community, who looked up to Michael Berry as a mentor.
Berry was born in 1920, the fourth of nine children, in Highland Park, which become a center for immigrants because of Henry Ford’s auto plant. Berry graduated from Fordson Junior College, Wayne College, and Detroit College of Law.
In 1949, he got involved in a recall campaign against Dearborn Mayor Orville Hubbard, one of his first political activities. In 1950, “he and his associates formed the law practice of Berry, Hopson & Francis in Dearborn,” according to a biography on the website of Michigan State University College of Law, where he has endowed a scholarship.
In the 1960s, he and his family were featured in the Detroit Free Press as “the typical American family,” an article that caught the eye of the U.S. government.
The United State Information Agency then sponsored a trip in 1966 for the Berry family to Lebanon and Egypt to act as goodwill ambassadors to show that the U.S. cared about immigrants in the U.S.
In 1967, he was elected to be on the Wayne County Road Commission, serving until 1982.
According to the biography on the Michigan State website, he “quickly put his mark on the agency by righting a skewed bidding system. In one instance, using his science education and lab training, he questioned the composition of fertilizer being purchased and was able to ‘right’ the formula used, opening up the bidding and saving vast amounts of taxpayer dollars.”
“His sharp business acumen earned him the position of chairman, which he held for 10 of his nearly 16 years of service,” the biography said. “While he was chairman of the Commission, Berry’s tenacious involvement in Detroit Metro Airport expansion, tight oversight of the bidding process, and execution of contracts earned him great respect.”
But in 1981, the Detroit News ran a series of articles questioning Berry’s spending at the commission and for hiring family members, including a son-in-law. In his autobiography, Berry responded to the articles.
Berry wrote in his autobiography that he felt he was singled out based on his ethnicity: “I had hired a lot of blacks, Irish, everyone that really applied for a job, including Arab Americans,” he wrote. In his autobiography, Berry said he hired 44 Arab Americans for county jobs.
Active in the Democratic Party, Berry knew future Wayne County Executive Ed McNamara back in 1957 when he represented him in a case involving a dispute with a builder.
Berry was chair of the 16th Congressional Democratic District for four terms starting in the 1960s, according to the Michigan State biography.
Berry was also active on issues involving the Middle East. One of his cousins is Nabih Berri, today the Parliament Speaker in Lebanon.
In 1968, he drove Robert F. Kennedy from the airport a few weeks before he was shot dead, saying he told Kennedy the U.S. should be more even-handed in its foreign policy and not just support Israel all the time, according to his autobiography. Kennedy wrote him a letter thanking him for his time, a copy of which he kept in his Dearborn home.
Berry’s first wife, Vivian, of German descent, converted to Islam and they raised their daughters as Muslims, teaching them that “Islam really is a religion of peace and one that teaches kindness and goodness,” according to his autobiography.
He “will be missed,” said Dearborn attorney Majed Moughni. “He was a role model and a great activist for our community. One thing I learned from Mike Berry is to stand up for justice, even if you have to stand alone.”
Berry is survived by his four daughters, Laura, Carol, Gail, Cindi, with his first wife, Vivian, who was stabbed to death in 1972 in her Plymouth Township home by a 17-year-old teen.
Berry is also survived by his wife, Cindy, six grandchildren, four great grandchildren, and three siblings.
Visitation is 1 to 8 pm Monday at John N. Santeiu & Son Funeral Home, 1139 Inkster Rd., Garden City (between Ford and Cherry Hill).
Visitation continues 1 to 8 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at the Islamic Center of America, 19500 Ford Rd., Dearborn (west of Southfield Fwy.)
Funeral services are to be held 11 a.m. Thursday at the Islamic Center of America.
Source: www.freep.com