After growing up in Tulsa and graduating from Holland Hall School, Nancy Michaels Berry moved to Massachusetts to attend Wellesley College. While at Wellesley, she met fellow Oklahoman and Harvard student Charles Berry Jr., and the two were married.
The couple returned to Oklahoma City, where Nancy raised four sons and earned her bachelor's degree in history and master's degree in international relations from the University of Oklahoma. She was an active civic leader, becoming passionately involved in a number of charities. Nancy served as the executive director of the Oklahoma City Community Foundation from 1975-1978.
In 2000, she moved to New York City where she continued her work with nonprofits at the National Executive Service Corps. In 2001, her son David Shelby Berry died in the terror attack on the World Trade Center, where he worked for the investment banking firm Keefee, Bruyette & Woods. Following his death, his family established the David S. Berry Memorial Fund that annually supports his alma mater, Casady School. Following Nancy's death in 2009, memorial gifts further supported the fund.
