Former Berry Investments president dies at 83

While working with John Berry Sr. and John Berry Jr., he became “a valued advisor whose insight, judgment, and steady counsel quickly proved indispensable,” the foundation said.

The Berry family invited Lincoln to join Berry Investments in 1986, where he served as president of the family’s business and philanthropic work. There, he helped organize and develop the Berry family office and oversaw a wide range of business and charitable initiatives, the foundation said.

“I remember the first meeting we had with Bill,” John Berry Jr. said in the statement. “My dad asked him to head up a family office, and Bill’s first question was, ‘What is the job description?’ My dad replied that we didn’t have one but could guarantee every day would be different. Bill accepted the challenge and went on to develop and organize the family office.”

Lincoln was also a trustee of the Berry Foundation.

The Berry Co. LLC was the Moraine company that produced the Yellow Pages phone number directories in the Midwest and beyond. Loren M. Berry launched the business from a rented desk in downtown Dayton in 1910 on a shoestring budget.

Berry’s Yellow Pages directories were quite successful, especially in the days before telephone company deregulation.

In 1986, the company was sold to BellSouth Corp., one of the post-deregulation “Baby Bells.”

In 2008, Local Insight Media Holdings acquired Berry, two years before Berry and 17 other related companies, including Local Insight, simultaneously filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Funeral arrangements for Lincoln are pending with Routsong Funeral Home in Kettering.