Henry W. Berger, a widely admired and loved professor of history at Washington University from 1970-2006, died Monday, Dec. 10. He was 81 and a longtime resident of University City.

Mr. Berger, who had attained the status of professor of history emeritus at Washington University, had struggled with numerous medical issues from childhood onward. Mr. Berger was the author of “St. Louis and Empire: 250 Years of Imperial Quest and Urban Crisis,” published by the Southern Illinois University Press.  An expert on World War I, Mr. Berger organized an exhibit and series of talks on the subject in 2014 at Kol Rinah (formerly Shaare Zedek), where he and his wife Mary were active for many years.

Henry Weinberg Berger was born on July 12, 1937, in Frederick, Md., son of Ernest and Leah Frances Berger.  His mother died of ALS when Henry was 10 years old. Mr. Berger was predeceased by his beloved brother, David S. Berger. Mr. Berger’s father later remarried, and Ruth Berger became a second mother to Henry. 

Mr. Berger was born with multiple physical impairments, including hearing loss, challenges with fine motor skills and missing musculature, said Rabbi Noah Arnow of Kol Rinah.  Mr. Berger learned how to compensate for his hearing problems by learning how to read lips.

Funeral services were held at Kol Rinah last week, where Rabbi Arnow officiated. Several of Mr. Berger’s family members, faculty colleagues and former students expressed admiration for the professor’s qualities of humility, kindness and a warm and engaging sense of humor. Several agreed he was rigorous in scholarship and warm and expansive to everyone he met in the course of his long and productive career.

In his eulogy, the rabbi said, “Part of what it means to be an historian is to remember history—to remember what happened, and to teach others those stories too. Henry Berger, who was an historian par excellence and historian to his core, is now the subject of our storytelling, our memorializing, our telling of history.” 

One of Mr. Berger’s university colleagues described his voice as a “nasal rasp,” which was very distinctive and which got the attention of students and people who attended his talks.  “He took his impairment and turned it into an asset.  He always was able to get the attention of those to whom he was speaking.”

After graduating from Frederick High School, Mr. Berger attended The Ohio State University, where he was placed in the Stadium Dormitory, living with football players, which Mr. Berger’s son David said his father “loved.”

Mr. Berger studied political science (which he would jokingly call “political silence”), and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with honors, writing his thesis on the French in Indochina. 

In his eulogy, Arnow noted that one summer, Mr. Berger worked in a pea canning factory in Wisconsin and noticed all the ways the owners were exploiting their workers. Mr. Berger spoke up and was promptly fired. This experience, Arnow noted, “deeply influenced his politics and academic interest for the rest of his life.  He started out as a Republican, seeing the Democrats as the party of segregation. But in Wisconsin, he became active in the Young Democrats and worked on campaigns throughout his time in the graduate school.

Mr. Berger completed his Ph.D. in American labor history in 1966, writing a dissertation on the foreign policy of the AFL-CIO in Latin America. His first job was at the University of Vermont, where he he met his wife, the former Mary Blistein. They were married on Oct. 8, 1966. 

In 1970, Mr. Berger started his long career at Washington University in the history department, where he received tenure in the early 1970s.  He remained politically active throughout his life, having been one of the signers of the Port Huron Statement of Students for a Democratic Society, and he supported campus protestors at Washington University.

Mr. Berger retired in 2006, but he taught another year, due to short staffing in the history department.

In his retirement, he was able to focus on and complete his book project, “St. Louis and Empire:  250 Years of Imperial Quest and Urban Crisis,” and had been working on another book as well.

Although he had fought back and recovered from physical challenges and illness for most of his life, they finally overwhelmed his strong spirit. Arnow said, “He told me he was at peace, without regrets and ready.”

Survivors include his wife of 52 years, Mary Blistein Berger, children David and Leah, and his sister Miriam Richter. 

Memorial contributions preferred to the Henry Berger Scholarship Fund; checks should be made payable to Washington University with Henry Berger Scholarship fund in the subject line, and sent to History Department, Campus Box 1062, Washington University, 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, 63130.