19 Facts About Rynn Berry

Rynn Berry was an American author and scholar on vegetarianism and veganism, as well as a pioneer in the animal rights and vegan movements.

Rynn Berry studied literature, archeology, and classics at the University of Pennsylvania, and ancient history and comparative religion at Columbia University.

Rynn Berry became vegetarian as a teenager and vegan at the age of 21.

Rynn Berry taught comparative literature at Baruch College and later culinary history at New School for Social Research in New York City.

Rynn Berry was a scholar of vegetarian history, and wrote a number of books, plays, and other works on this subject.

Rynn Berry wrote the entry on the history of vegetarianism in America for the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, edited by Andrew Smith, and he was commissioned to write seven entries for The Oxford Companion to Food and Drink in America.

Rynn Berry was a playwright who contributed a number of short plays about 'famous vegetarians in history'.

Rynn Berry wrote a chapter on the history of the raw food movement for Becoming Raw: The Essential Guide to Raw Vegan Diets.

Rynn Berry was on the advisory boards of EarthSave, the American Vegetarian Association, and historical advisor to the North American Vegetarian Society.

Rynn Berry was an honored member of the American Vegan Society Speakers Bureau, instructor at Victoria Moran's Main Street Academy.

Rynn Berry contributed to the animal rights movement in Brazil, where he frequently lectured both in English and in Portuguese.

One of Rynn Berry's most notable works, Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes: Lives and Lore from Buddha to the Beatles, is a collection of biographical sketches of famous people who were vegetarians at some point in their lives.

Rynn Berry was an enthusiastic amateur runner, despite having asthma.

Rynn Berry was found collapsed and unconscious in jogging clothes in Prospect Park in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, on December 31,2013, but not identified until January 7,2014.

Rynn Berry never regained consciousness and died at 12:30 pm on January 9,2014.

Rynn Berry was the epitome of the kind of unheralded grassroots activist without which any movement for change cannot grow, and he was a witty and erudite figure: the Dr Johnson of the vegetarian movement.

Rynn Berry would be missed greatly, even by those who never met him, but his work will live on.

Rynn Berry's life was celebrated publicly and outdoors on March 30,2014, for about thirty minutes, at the annual Veggie Pride Parade in New York City.

In previous years, Rynn Berry had been on the staff of Vegetarian Summerfest as a scholar and speaker on veganism and world religions.