Rita Berndt

Rita Sloan Berndt, a neurology professor at the University of Maryland Medical School for 25 years who studied people who suffered from aphasia, the loss of the power to use or understand words, died June 17 2014 of lymphoma at her home. She was 70. Dr. Berndt was born to Naomi Ravenscroft Sloan and Joseph Sloan in Baltimore and was raised in Catonsville. She graduated from the Institute of Notre Dame in 1962 and married her husband of nearly 50 years, Rick Berndt, in 1964. After they were married, Dr. Berndt worked as a legal assistant to help her husband through law school. About a year after their son was born, Dr. Berndt went back to school at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 1968. She earned a bachelor's degree in liberal studies in 1971 and went on to earn her master's degree in psychology in 1975, and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology in 1977 from the Johns Hopkins University. After graduating from Hopkins, Dr. Berndt worked at the university as an associate professor of cognitive psychology. In 1983, she became a faculty member in neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where she stayed until she retired in 2008 as a full professor. In 2001, Dr. Berndt was diagnosed with cancer. In 2003, she had a risky, rarely done procedure so she could live to see her grandchildren. In addition to her husband, son and two grandsons, Dr. Berndt is survived by her brother, Don Sloan of Bel Air.