Berry Yolken

Berry was born in Birmingham, Alabama on February 24, 1934 to parents Henry Yolken and Bertha Gottlieb. Berry grew up in Birmingham and Baltimore and then met and married the love of his life, Audrey Newmark in Florida. This love would endure for sixty three years. Their marriage resulted in four children, seven grandchildren and ten great grandchildren.

Prior to marrying Audrey and starting his family, Berry joined the Navy right out of high school and served aboard a destroyer escort until he qualified as a sonar man and served aboard the USS Cod, a diesel submarine with duty in the Atlantic. He then obtained an electrical engineering degree from the University of Miami and went on to earn a Masters degree from UCLA. After working as an electrical engineer at Teledyne he moved the family from Florida to California and started his career at TRW Space Systems where he worked until retirement. He became known as a strong leader and was promoted to quality assurance director and then to project manager for some very advanced satellites. After that, he taught engineering classes at California State University Long Beach.

In retirement, Berry was very active with the American Red Cross and Meals on Wheels to provide disaster recovery services and free meals to needy seniors. Berry also worked with Audrey as a docent at Rancho Los Alamitos, a museum dedicated to the Spanish ranches that were active in California before the U.S. expanded west. Berry enjoyed travel before and after retirement and experienced many wonderful trips abroad with Audrey.

In his final act of service, Berry assumed the role of Audrey’s caregiver after she fell ill, providing not just companion care, but also the necessities of daily life that required so much love and dedication. Berry doted on Audrey and on the very morning of his death he was looking at pictures of Audrey in a photo album and pausing to say “so beautiful” at each picture of her on every page. Berry will be remembered as a family man who gave generously of himself to help so many others lead prosperous and meaningful lives.