PEABODY — Sen. Fred Berry will tonight receive the 2009 New England Higher Education Merit Award from the New England Board of Higher Education.
Berry will be among dignitaries from the spheres of government and academia, including former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, President Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, honored during a ceremony at the Long Wharf Marriott Hotel in Boston.
Mitchell will receive the Walter R. Peterson Award for Leadership. The former senator is the founder of a scholarship program dedicated to giving the youth of Maine a shot at a college education.
The board's mission is to promote greater educational opportunity for New England residents at the region's 270 public and independent colleges and universities. Its annual awards highlight individuals and institutions that have made significant contributions in support of this effort.
"I am honored and thankful to be recognized by the New England Board of Higher Education," Berry said yesterday in a statement. "To be acknowledged alongside such prestigious individuals in higher education is a true privilege."
Berry, the Senate majority leader since 2003, is one of six recipients, one from each New England state, of a Merit Award. The following individuals and institutions will also be recognized:
Merle Harris, president emerita, Charter Oak State College (Connecticut)
Robert L. Woodbury, former chancellor, University of Maine System
The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication, Franklin Pierce University (New Hampshire)
John C. Revens Jr., former president pro tempore, Rhode Island State Senate
Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center
The longest-serving member of the Senate, Berry is in his 14th term representing Beverly, Danvers, Peabody, Salem and Topsfield.
The Peabody resident recently spearheaded the creation of a commission to study the feasibility of allowing state colleges to become universities. He helped secure money for the Second Degree Nursing program at Salem State College, along with $106 million for the college's new library.
Berry is the founder and president of F.B. Charities Inc., which, among other work, awards college scholarship money to eighth-grade students.
