Dr. Robert Berris, founder of a program that helps Colorado cancer patients get advanced treatment in their home towns, died May 23. He was 92.
A celebration of life may be held later, said his daughter, Linda Berris Hill of Los Angeles.
Berris was still involved with the program — the Colorado Cancer Research Program (CCRP) — until a few days before he died.
“He went on forever,” said Dr. Fred Platz, who is retired from private practice but still teaches at the University of Colorado.
The CCRP gets patients enrolled in cancer clinical trials in or near their homes without having to travel to a cancer center. That opens the door for patients to receive the most current treatment.
Today, the program includes 17 cooperating hospitals and 120 cancer doctors, said Dr. Nicholas DiBella, the program’s past chairman.
“It gives patients the opportunity for treatment in their own homes and communities, is more affordable and they have more support” from family and friends, said Nancy Morton, who worked with Berris for years and is former executive director of the CCRP.
Berris got a grant in 1983 from the National Cancer Institute to establish the program and began with four Denver hospitals. Morton said Berris became nationally known for his work.
“He was intellectually curious, had a marvelous memory and a very broad understanding of what would work,” she said.
In addition, Berris and the late Dr. Paul Hamilton formed the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center, which now has 20 locations and 55 doctors throughout the state. Colorado was one of the first states to establish cancer centers.
Berris “was always willing and able to question the status quo, to look at issues from many aspects,” said DiBella, who also is past president of Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers.
A 2007 article in a CCRP publication said Berris had wide interests beyond medicine. At that time, he was taking a course in opera appreciation and another in particle physics.
Others remember his “gorgeous baritone singing voice,” said Jane Hajovsky, executive director of the CCRP. “We could always hear him singing in the elevator.”
Robert F. Berris was born in Detroit on July 12, 1918. He earned a bachelor of arts and medical degrees at the University of Michigan and a master of science at Wayne State University’s school of medicine.
He married Betty Baskin on Aug. 17, 1941.
In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by his son, James M. Berris, who lives in India; two grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
Other Deaths
John Hospers, 93, the Libertarian Party’s first presidential candidate, died in Los Angeles, the party said on its website.
Running on a platform of limited government and individual rights, Hospers and vice presidential nominee Theodora Nathan were on the ballot in two states in 1972 and received 3,671 votes and a single electoral vote. The election sent Richard Nixon to the White House for a second term.
Hospers taught philosophy at the University of Southern California. A statement on his website recalls that “traversing the country in a political campaign was hardly his style, and he was relieved to return to academia to resume his academic career.”
According to the website, Hospers was born in Pella, Iowa, southeast of Des Moines, and earned a doctorate at Columbia University.
The Libertarian Party was founded in Colorado in 1971.
