Bern was born in July 1950 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.
Along his educational pathway, he earned an Associate of Science degree
(1971), a Bachelor of Arts degree from Cleveland State University
in Ohio (1974), a Masters in Environmental Science from Miami University
in Ohio (1978); and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington (1989).
It was during his doctoral research that he began working for the
U.S. NOAA, National Marine Fisheries Service at the Northwest and
Alaska Fishery Science Center in Seattle. He was assigned to the Groundfish
Assessment Group preparing the first stock assessment for this newly
discovered walleye pollock fishery in the Gulf of Alaska. His work
enabled a team of scientists to provide timely forecasts of abundance
and biomass to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. This
required innovative analysis of the very short time series that was
available for pollock. He became a permanent employee in August 1987
and was charged with integrating fishery and research vessel assessment
data into a more complete assessment procedure to forecast stock size
and composition. Bern was reassigned to the Fisheries Oceanography
Coordinated Investigations (FOCI) Program in 1987 where his charge
was to develop recruitment prediction models and oversee the analytical
personnel within that Program.
During his tenure in the FOCI Program, Bern continued
to work on recruitment prediction, but also broadened his focus
from single species to ecosystems. The Gulf of Alaska recruitment
prediction model that he developed for walleye pollock is one of
the few predictions that incorporate both environmental and biological
data and are based on an underlying mechanistic model. Bern helped
to implement a series of Individual Based Models at the Center,
some of which are still in use today. More recently, he was engaged
in a national/international effort to construct integrated end-to-end
fisheries ecosystem models.
Bern worked tirelessly for several professional organizations,
most notably AFS, ICES, GLOBEC (ESSAS) and PICES. He served terms
as President of the AFS International Fisheries and Computer User
Sections. AFS recognized Bern’s lifetime achievement in 2009
with the Oscar Elton Sette Award for sustained excellence in marine
fishery biology through research, teaching, and / or administration.
Bern was on the editorial board of the ICES Journal of Marine
Science from 2001 to 2007 and a current member of the Working
Group on Data and Information Management. He actively suggested
new Theme Sessions for the Annual Science Conference and presented
at those meetings. Within PICES, Bern served as Co-Chairman of the
MODEL Task Team of the PICES/GLOBEC Climate Change and Carrying
Capacity (CCCC) Program, chaired the Technical Committee on Data
Exchange (TCODE), led the Marine Ecosystem Model Inter-comparison
project and was a member of the Science Board. PICES recently recognized
his achievements federating the member countries meta-databases
for the North Pacific with the PICES Ocean Monitoring Service Award
(2009, w. S.A. Macklin).
Just prior to his death, Bern served as the lead liaison for fisheries
issues in the U.S. Mississippi Canyon 252 Command Center in Washington,
D.C.
Bern was gregarious, loved a good party, and was enthusiastic about
new ideas and technologies that could advance science. He was 60
years old at the time of his untimely death. He leaves behind his
wife, Ronnette, sons Christopher (23), and Nicholas (18), and a
daughter, Sarah (16).
On behalf of the NEMURO Mafia, Shin-ichi
Ito, Kenneth A. Rose, Michio J. Kishi and Francisco E. Werner
We are writing this obituary with deep sadness.
Our dear colleague and friend, Dr. Bernard A. Megrey, suffered
a heart attack and passed away on October 1st, 2010.
Bern
contributed significantly to wide ranging areas of fisheries
science, including ecosystem modeling, population dynamics,
stock assessment, and comparative ecosystem studies. He collaborated
with scientists from many countries. Within PICES, he served
as the Chairman of TCODE (Technical Committee on Data Exchange)
and was awarded the PICES Ocean Monitoring Service Award (POMA)
for leadership in building an inventory of biophysical data
for the North Pacific, and creating the PICES Marine Metadata
Federation.
He also served as Co-Chair of MODEL Task Team
of the PICES/GLOBEC Climate Change and Carrying Capacity (CCCC)
Program, where he led the development of the NEMURO (North
Pacific Ecosystem Model for Understanding Regional Oceanography)
model. With Bern’s leadership, the NEMURO model became
an open source public model used by researchers worldwide.
Bern’s scientific insights were essential for the development
of NEMURO, but it was his guidance of the Model Task Team,
better known as the NEMURO Mafia, that led to NEMURO’s
success in providing a better understanding of marine ecosystems.
We remember Bern’s contagious enthusiasm, his dedication
and his high standards. But more importantly, we remember
Bern for his friendship, his warmth and his ability to reach
out individually to every person in the room. Our many trips
together were always an adventure. We became more than colleagues;
we became true friends. Our families know of these adventures
in the stories we tell upon our return and when we get together
in various places. He will be sorely missed for both his science
and his camaraderie. With Bern, not only did we arrive to
our destination and achieve our goals, but he also made the
journey fun. Our most heartfelt sympathies, thoughts and prayers
are with his wife Ronnette and their children, Chris, Sarah
and Nick.
Memorial Service and Donations
There will be a memorial service
for Bern at Bleitz Funeral Home (316 Florentia Street) in Seattle
on Saturday, October 9, at 2 p.m. It will be a celebration of
Bern's life and passions with family and close friends. Bern
was very active in both ICES (International Council for the
Exploration of the Sea) and PICES (North Pacific Marine Science
Organization), and concerned with the need to train and cultivate
young scientists, it is hence his family's preference that in
lieu of flowers, donations be used to establish a fund that
can support the travel and participation of students with various
background and from various countries and cultures, in joint
ICES/PICES activities. One meaningful event that Bern would
have approved of is the PICES/ICES Early Career Scientists Conference
to be held in Spain in spring 2012. As he was once a struggling
student himself, he would likely have appreciated the value
of travel grants for students to test the waters in such international
forum.
To make a donation, please send cheques
(made out to “PICES”, USD or
CAD) or bank drafts (any currency) to:
North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES)
P.O. Box 6000,
9860 West Saanich Road,
Sidney, B.C.,
Canada. V8L 4B2
Questions regarding donations can be addressed to Ms. Christina
Chiu (christina@pices.int)
at the PICES Secretariat.
List of Donors to the Megrey Student Fund
PICES is pleased to announce that as of December 31, 2010
, a total of US$15,626 + CDN$232 was received for a “Student
Fund” in honour of Dr. Bernard Megrey. Here are the
donors:
Thomas Waterman
Daniel Ito
Ann M. Kiernan
FOCI Group
Shinichi Ito
Hiroya Sugizaki & Yoshi Oozeki
Tokio Wada
Toru Suzuki
Gordon Kruse
Yukimasa Ishida
Vidar Wespestad
Michio Kishi
Erlend Moksness
Jeffrey Napp
Anne Hollowed
Suam Kim
Stanley A. Moberly
Daniel S. Gerhart
Tim O’Niell
Earl L. Hunt
Michelle & Frederick Abraham
Thomas T. Muramoto
Mary Grace Lentz
Annette S. Peters
William R. Tuttle
Daniel Huppert & Gail Theilacker
Kathy Ray/Scott Ray
Kathy Ray/Helen Strah
Bill Karp
Friends at the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway
John Megrey & Mary Lou Adams
Ronnette Megrey
Jonathan & Kimberly Hare
Jake Rice
Sarah Gaichas
Robin Brown
Christina Chiu
Hal Batchelder
Kristen R. Laursen
Cathryn E. Tortorici
Michele Jacobi
Lauren & Thomas R. Jones
Boy Scout Troup 80
RACE Division of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA
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