Virginia M. Berry, a retired social worker and former Mays Chapel resident, died of pulmonary disease Saturday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. She was 71 and had resided since 1998 at the Fairhaven retirement community in Sykesville.

She was born Virginia Mead in Baltimore and raised on Gwynns Falls Parkway. A 1949 graduate of Forest Park High School, she earned her bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Maryland in 1953. After teaching at the American School in Izmir, Turkey, from 1954 to 1955, she earned a master's in social work in 1959 from the University of Pennsylvania.

She began her career in 1956 with Baltimore's former Department of Social Welfare. She later worked at the Cylburn Children's Home and the old Baltimore City Hospitals before taking a position with Family and Children's Society of Baltimore in 1962. She retired in 1973.

Mrs. Berry was formerly an adjunct professor of casework at the University of Maryland, Catholic University of America and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She was a former member of the English-Speaking Union, Three Arts Club of Homeland and the Johns Hopkins Club.

Services were held Tuesday.

Mrs. Berry is survived by her husband of 32 years, Duane Berry; a sister, Celeste M. Smalkin of Lutherville; and a niece and nephew.