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Winter is more than a season at Upstate

Snow glistens in the courtyard of Weiskotten Hall on Feb. 28. Photo by Susan Cole.

Snow glistens in the courtyard of Weiskotten Hall on Feb. 28. Photo by Susan Cole.


Leslie and Linda Berry were expecting their first child in February 1982. The blissful mom-to-be was reading a book – she can‘t recall which one – with a character named Winter. She liked the name. Her baby would be born in winter, after all.

Dr. Winter Berry. Yes, that's her name.

Dr. Winter Berry. Yes, that's her name.


Winter Berry was born on Valentine‘s Day and raised in the wintery climate of New Hampshire. “I liked having a different name that no one else shared. Growing up, I had four or five Kaitlyns in my grade.”

She played violin and until 10th grade wanted to be a music teacher because she loved kids. She was good at science and by age 16 decided to become a pediatrician, instead.

In her third year of medical school, Berry and the man who would become her husband moved to Watertown and experienced lake effect snow. “We sort of fell in love with Northern New York,” she says. It was like New England but a slower pace and more affordable.

Today Winter Berry, DO lives closer to Syracuse. She is an instructor of pediatrics at Upstate. The young patients who notice her first name on her name badge invariably ask if ‘Winter‘ is her real name.

Read more cool stories


about Upstate people and programs


in the winter issue of Upstate Health magazine.

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