Barbara Berman, volunteer, arts lover

Barbara Tripp Berman, 63, of Bryn Mawr, a former marketing executive and volunteer, died of breast cancer Tuesday at her home.

Mrs. Berman grew up in Rydal and graduated from Abington Friends School. She earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of Pennsylvania.

For several years, she was a marketing executive for CBS in New York City.

In 1982 she married Arnold T. Berman, an orthopedic surgeon at Hahnemann University Hospital. They were introduced by Mrs. Berman's "very persistent" grandmother, Helen Bersin, who was a patient of his.

"She was a perfect wife and mother, and was always encouraging other women to be good mothers," Mrs. Berman's husband said. He said she often had quoted Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis as saying, "If you don't devote your life to your children, it is a wasted life."

Mrs. Berman was vice chairwoman and secretary of the board of the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr. She helped develop the capital program at the private school, which her daughter, Abigail, attended. Mrs. Berman was also secretary of the board of the Philadelphia College of Physicians for many years.

She loved New York's cultural scene, and spent a weekend there with her husband six or seven times a year, he said. They were Metropolitan Opera subscribers, and she was a passionate theatergoer, he said.

She enjoyed analyzing plays, operas and movies with her wide circle of friends. "She was a brilliant, brilliant woman," he said.

When Mrs. Berman's cancer was diagnosed four years ago, doctors predicted she would live only three or four months, her husband said. With aggressive treatment, though, he said, her quality of life was excellent until a few weeks ago.

In addition to her husband and daughter, Mrs. Berman is survived by her parents, Alan and Maggie Tripp, and a brother.

A service and burial were private.

Memorial donations may be made to the Barbara Berman Breast Cancer Research Fund, which the Bermans established in 2005 at the Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, 3535 Market St., Suite 750, Philadelphia 19104.