Eric Berryman:
CLASS OF 1966
Hofstra UniversityClass of 1966
Hempstead, NY
Eric's Story
My time at Hofstra was brief and immensely enjoyable. I left the Army in September, 1964 and immediately enrolled as an undergraduate, majoring in English. After six years grunting up one hill and down the other side - including a year in Vietnam as a help door gunner - it is an understatement that I relished being on campus. Never missed a class, rain or shine. Loved the place, every stick and stone. Felt hugely blessed for being there.
Seventeen was the minimum age to be allowed to come to the US unaccompanied and I came on the German quota for 1957. Hofstra offered me 60 hours for two years of college work in England. With the addition of a full-load summer school in 1965 I managed to collect enough credits to graduate in January, 1966.
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antship at the University of New Mexico followed. MA, 1968 and PhD 1971. Thought I wanted to teach but when the experience came, I was bored witless. Besides, this was not the era in which an unapologetic Vietnam combat vet fit comfortably on a college faculty. I defected into the Navy and, later, the intelligence community on the civil service side. There were plenty of adventures ashore and afloat, across the globe and in the Pentagon where I began my staff officer life as the Navy's bicentennial coordination officer.
Bobbie (who survived the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon) and I have been married for almost 40 years. We are a blended family of five children and three adored grandchildren. We live in a cottage at the western foot of Cape Henry, Virginia.
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