Dr. Berne L Jones

Dr. Berne L. Jones 84 died August 18, 2025, with his loving wife Holly of 61 years by his side

following a three-week struggle to recover from complications following surgery.

Berne was born in Rochester, Indiana to Berne O. and Mildred Mathias Jones, on Memorial

Day.

As a boy in Indiana he attended several elementary schools, graduating salutatorian from

Rochester High School in 1959. He received his undergraduate degree from Wabash College in

1963 and went on to pursue his Chemistry (Biochemistry) PhD in 1967 from Washington State

University. He then earned post doctorates at the University of Colorado and University of

Alberta, Canada and took a position as a Professor at the University of Manitoba. Berne next

became a Research Chemist and Adjunct professor at Kansas State University. In 1984 he

became a Supervisory Research Chemist at the USDA Barley Malt lab and Professor University

of Wisconsin, Madison. There he became a world expert in barley proteinases.

Berne joined the staff of the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Cereal Crops

Research Unit (CCRU), Madison, Wisconsin in 1984 as Supervisory Research Chemist.

The CCRU is the only national research center focused on barley quality, primarily for

malting, brewing, and distilling. Berne, with his talented research teams, oversaw the

quality evaluations of barley lines the CCRU conducted for ARS, and university barley

breeders throughout the US, enabling them to develop new malting barley varieties,

with improved traits of benefit to barley growers, industry end-users, and consumers.

That work also led to the release of barley varieties for other uses, such as the high

yielding and broadly adapted livestock feed variety, Colter, developed in collaboration

with Dr. Darrell Wesenberg, USDA-ARS, Aberdeen, Idaho. Berne led a productive

cutting-edge basic research program with his teams that increased our knowledge and

role of enzymes that break down proteins in the malting and brewing process. Proteins

and their breakdown products are critical to malting and brewing processing along with

quality, in addition to overall brewing efficiency, yeast nutrition, flavor, and beer foam.

With improved understanding of these enzymes, breeders more effectively develop

improved varieties with suitable profiles. Berne also served as the only public sector

researcher serving on the American Malting Barley Association Technical Committee,

providing an important link for barley researchers to the malting and brewing industries

and bringing an academic perspective to its deliberations. After 25 years of service with

the USDA-ARS, including 18 years at the CCRU and prior service at USDA-ARS

Manhattan, Kansas, Berne retired in 2002.

Retiring to Idaho was his longtime dream. After a successful career as a biochemist, it was the

icing on the cake of his life. He enjoyed his hillside, growing fruit trees, gardening and his cacti

collection. He was a lover of history and became an expert on the Lewis and Clark

expedition. He and Holly enjoyed the many fun excursions and trail cleaning outings with the

Valley Cats ATV/Snowmobile Club. The friendships made there were very important to them.

His friendship with neighbor Jerry Cross became like family. He respected Jerry's advice on all

things outdoors, mechanical, etc. “Ask Jerry” was his favorite saying! He also thought very

highly of Yvette, his computer guru. Berne and Holly have three children, Anne, Stoughton, Wisconsin, Jennifer (Clay) Thompson,

Laramie, Wyoming and Andrew (Megan) Madison, Wisconsin and one fine grandson Colter

Thompson, Laramie, Wyoming.

Berne is survived by two brothers in Indiana and their families, Glen and Carl Jones. He was

preceded in death by his parents, his sister Marvis Morgan and her husband Jim, and brother

Dale Jones

Cremation has taken place, no services. Those who would like to can contribute to their local Hospice in his memory.