Lt. Gen. Sidney B. Berry, a decorated combat veteran who ushered women into West Point as superintendent of the United States Military Academy in the 1970s and confronted a grievous cheating scandal there, died on July 1 in Kennett Square, Pa. He was 87.

The cause was congestive heart failure, a complication of Parkinson’s disease, his son, Bryan, said.

General Berry was a military luminary from the day a fellow cadet christened him “our leader, owner of the place,” in his academy yearbook. He was the first in his graduating class to achieve the rank of general.

Serving in the Army in the Korean War, he was wounded, awarded two Silver Stars for valor and promoted twice in the field, to captain and major. In the Vietnam War, he was again wounded and won two more Silver Stars. He was one of two military assistants to Robert S. McNamara, the defense secretary in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.