Morris Berd, 93, artist

Morris Berd of Media, 93, an artist and horticulturist, died of complications from pneumonia Sept. 26 at Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, where he had exhibited his paintings and planted a rock garden on the hospital grounds.

Mr. Berd's work evolved during his long career from realist landscapes - especially Lancaster County farm scenes - to abstractions based on childhood memories, games and art history. His paintings are in private, corporate and museum collections, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Barnes Foundation.

Mr. Berd was on the faculty of the Philadelphia College of Art, now the University of the Arts, for 40 years. After retiring in 1979, he taught an occasional course. He painted in oils until 2005 and painted in watercolors until last year, his son Jared said.

At his home in Media, he maintained a rock garden of unusual plants and was a member of the American Rock Garden Society. The spring-flowering perennial phlox pulchra "Morris Berd" was named in recognition of his horticulture efforts, including his discovery of two native Pennsylvania wildflowers when he was a young man working with a botanist in Warren County.

Mr. Berd was born in a house in Elfreth's Alley in Old City and grew up in West Philadelphia. He graduated from Overbrook High School and from the Philadelphia College of Art.

During World War II, he was a conscientious objector and did alternative service in a mental hospital in Warren County, where he met his future wife, DeEtta Nelson, a psychiatric nurse.

In 1950, the couple bought a property in Media. Two years later, Mr. Berd won a competition to create a mural for Gimbels department store. He used his $2,000 award to convert his barn into a studio. The mural, showing the transformation of Philadelphia's skyline from the Betsy Ross house to the landmark PSFS building, is now housed at the Atwater Kent Museum. Mr. Berd also painted a mural called History of Oil for the Franklin Institute.

In addition to son Jared, he is survived by son Caleb. His wife died in 1999.

A memorial service will be private.