the Edna Cornelia Berry Endowed Scholarship in Nursing

The Edna Cornelia Berry Endowed Nursing Scholarship was established in 2008 by Judge Harold F. and Mrs. Edna Jeannette White in honor of Jeannette’s aunt and namesake, Edna Cornelia Berry. The scholarship will be used to support students in The University of Akron’s College of Nursing who, like Ms. Berry, embody excellence in study, a commitment to high standards in nursing care, and a selfless desire to serve others.

Edna Cornelia Berry spent her life unselfishly caring for others. After taking time to help her mother care for her siblings, Ms. Berry attended nursing school later in life, earning her A.B. and R.N. degrees. As an operating room nurse, she dedicated her career to the care of surgical patients at University Hospitals in Cleveland, where she worked closely with Dr. Claude S. Beck, renowned cardiovascular researcher and surgeon. Ms. Berry retired as Head Nurse, Operating Rooms.

Her contributions to health care extended beyond the operating room and into the classroom. Her success as a surgical nurse and expertise in operating room set-up and procedures were the inspiration for the creation of a textbook that would become distributed worldwide and published in two languages. Ms. Berry served as co-author of “Berry & Kohn’s Operating Room Technique” and as co-editor of the first four editions. Originally written in 1955, the book has been published in English and Spanish with special editions created for the Philippines, India, South America, and Spain. Now in its eleventh edition, “Berry & Kohn’s Operating Room Technique” is still known as the textbook of choice for understanding basic surgical principles and techniques.

The Edna Cornelia Berry Endowed Nursing Scholarship is to support a student in his/her junior or senior year of nursing at The University of Akron or a student in the University’s Accelerated BSN program. The recipient will be selected by the dean of the College of Nursing with consideration to the highest needs of the students and the profession of nursing.