Berry, Martha McChesney

Berry, Martha McChesney

(1866–1942) educator; born near Rome, Ga. Daughter of a wealthy planter, in the early 1900s she created nondenominational religious schools for Blue Ridge Mountain children with work-study programs that taught students skills useful in their own communities. Supported by benefactors such as Henry Ford, her schools became models for public schools in Georgia and other states. She founded Berry College in 1926.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.