DR. L.K. BERRYHILL, M.D.

He attended Iowa Teachers College on a Farm Bureau scholarship. He returned to Buffalo Center where he taught in one-room schoolhouses in Winnebago County for two years. He then studied zoology at Iowa State University before completing medical school at the University of Iowa. Lee returned to ISU at age 65 to earn a master’s degree in creative writing. His thesis was a memoir of his childhood. He wrote many “Iowa View” essays for the Des Moines Register.

He met Meredith Carpenter Swing at a children’s summer camp in Illinois where they were both counselors. In 1955 they began their 67-year marriage, the centerpiece of his life. Five children were born of this union.

Lee’s career in medicine spanned 50 years. He fulfilled his public health service on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota in 1959. As he became convinced of the importance of mental health, he returned to U of I for a psychiatric residency.

In 1968, after five years practicing psychiatry in Newton, he moved to Fort Dodge, where he opened a unit designed to fulfill his vision of optimal in-patient mental health care at Trinity Regional Hospital. He assembled a staff, of whom he was extremely proud. He was able to practice in what he called “the Golden Age of Psychiatry.” Near the end of his life, he judged himself to have been “a good psychiatrist but an excellent psychiatric team director.”

He pioneered the use of Lithium in Iowa, which remains the gold standard for the treatment of Bipolar Disorder. As a believer in the community mental health model, he promoted the Chat and Nibble Club, designed to provide social support for the chronically mentally ill.

While directing the hospital psychiatric unit, Lee maintained a private practice, cared for patients at the Webster County Home, and opened the first mental health center serving Ft. Dodge and four surrounding counties. After his retirement, the center was named in his honor.

He was board certified in Psychiatry and Neurology and was named a Distinguished Life Fellow in 2013, the highest honor designated by the American Psychiatric Association.

His life of service included several humanitarian trips to Central America and dedication to the Fort Dodge community, including serving on the school board, holding leadership roles in the First United Methodist Church, starting the local Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) program, and leading the Restorative Justice initiative in this area.

After semi-retirement at age 70, he and Meredith traveled to Arizona, Kentucky, and New Zealand where he provided locum tenens psychiatry. He practiced medicine until age 80, when he and Meredith moved to Friendship Haven. Their daughter Megan provided live-in care for them for the past year.

Lee enjoyed physical activity. He wrestled while at the U of I, completed ten RAGBRAIs (several with grandchildren), and was a founding member of the Fort Dodge Tennis Club. He made many trips to the boundary waters where he paddled a cedar strip canoe he and his son had made by hand. In 1997 he bicycled through Europe to visit the site where his brother Alan had died in WWII. The trip was a healing experience for Lee, as making sense of his brother’s death was a core struggle of his life.

He is survived by his wife, Meredith; daughters Leighton Arcenas (Mariano) of Davenport, Adrienne Adams (Kenneth) of Ft. Dodge, Allison Berryhill (Dan Hoegh) of Atlantic, Megan Berryhill of Newton, and son Stafford Berryhill of St. Paul, MN; grandchildren Alirio Arcenas (Katie), Lucero Wilcox (Mark), Leiana Arcenas, Emerson Adams (Sonja), Cameron Adams, Jordan Adams, Carson Adams (Naiki), Brigham Hoegh (Cameron Gale), Max Hoegh (Andrea), Eloise Buergers (John), Palmer Hoegh, Harrison Hoegh (Maria), Stuart Hoegh, and Evelyn Berryhill; 10 great-grandchildren and many beloved nieces and nephews.

Lee was preceded in death by his parents and his ten siblings: Irvin, Ada, Boyd, Edith, Marian, Frances, Alan, Gerald, Clinton and Glenda.

A gathering in his memory will be Saturday, Sept. 24, in the Celebration Center at Friendship Haven. A service will begin at 2 p.m., followed by time to greet the family and reminisce.

Memorial donations may be made to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) or Planned Parenthood.