Bevan Cooney's grandfather Donald Cooney was in the Navy and got his Doctorate degree from Berkeley.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/150418327/
Bevan Cooney's grandfather
Donald Cooney
University of Nevada - ’47 (biology), biology professor emeritus and department chairman, died Jan. 11, 2007. He was 88. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Cooney joined the University as an instructor in the biology department in 1948. He earned his doctorate in mycology from the University of California-Berkeley in 1952, and returned to the University as an assistant professor in biology that same year. He was named professor in 1965 and later served as chairman of the biology department. Donald retired in 1980. He was senior author of Thermophilic fungi, an account of their biology, activities and classification, published in 1964. He and his co-author, Ralph Emerson, reported a new species of fungi known as Mucor miehei. This organism was used, under patented processes, by two large enzyme companies in the commercial production of cheese. Donald was a native Nevadan: his grandfather established a homestead in the 1860s in the Dayton area. He was preceded in death by his wife, of 54 years, Helen Traner Cooney, daughter of University professor and dean of the College of Education, Fred W. Traner. He is survived by his sons, Gary and Ronald; his daughter, Maureen Eng; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/134690882/donald-g_-cooney