The family and friends of the late Professor Jacques Berger have created an endowment fund in his name , the interest from which will assist undergraduate students to participate in field biology courses.
Jacques Berger was born in New York City of Swiss parents. Jacques grew up in Philadelphia, did his undergraduate work at Pennsylvania State University . For his graduate work at the University of Illinois,Urbana-Champaign ‎(UIUC)‎, Jacques chose to study under J.O. Corliss and completed his 534-page doctoral thesis on echinoid ciliates in 1964. Dr. Berger gained teaching experience at Illinois, Duke and North Carolina State before he was recruited to the University of Toronto in 1965. Professor Berger rose to the rank of Professor in the Department of Zoology, he was a Senior Fellow of Massey College , an Associate of University College , an Affiliate Member of the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Techn ology , and Research Associate of the Royal Ontario Museum.
Professor Berger published 59 papers on protozoans, which he collected from the Atlantic: Newfoundland, North Carolina, Bahamas, Panama; the Pacific: Marshall Islands and Eniwetok; and the Indian Ocean: Madagascar. Jacques gained international re cognition in the Society of Protozoologists, where he served as Secretary and on Executive Council, and in the American Microscopical Society where he was elected President.
Professor Berger derived great pleasure from the 11 graduate students he trained, several of whom went on to academic careers.
Professor Berger was the compleat naturalist and he never lost his childhood interest in all things living. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the natural world. In midlife he became an enthusiastic golfer, to be cut short as his legs began to fail him. Jacques turned his mind to baseball and when the University looked for someone to bestow on Cito Gaston the degree, doctor of laws, Jacques was chosen as the person in the University of Toronto who knew the most about the game.
Jacques Berger died in his 60th year. He is survived by his wife, Julia Ann Klippel Berger, his daughter, Jacqueline Michelle Berger, and his parents, Bluette and Jean.