Biographical Info

After leaving a corporate career in New York, Barry has been engaged with many architectural and local history projects and has been an author and frequent lecturer on those topics. In his corporate career, Barry last served as Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, and member of the five-officer Chairman’s Group of the multi-national retail holding company now called Foot Locker, Inc., headquartered in New York.

The co-author with the late John K. (“Jack”) Turpin of the two-volume work, New Jersey Country Houses: The Somerset Hills, Barry has also written a number of articles on various aspects of local history that have appeared in The Black River Journal and other publications. He has also produced a documentary video about architect George B. Post, focusing on his design of the campus of the College of the City of New York. In addition to his research and writing, Barry is a frequent lecturer on various aspects of architectural and local history.

Barry has volunteered his services as history consultant for several of the Mansion in May fund-raising projects sponsored by the Women’s Association for Morristown Medical Center, including in 2023 at Three Fields in Mendham, in 2020 at Tyvan Hill in New Vernon, and previous events at Alnwick Hall / The Abbey in 2017, Blairsden in 2014, Glynallyn in 2012, and Froh-Heim in 2008. He is also serving as the history consultant and will be lecturing about the 2025 Mansion in May at the Wildfair estate in Chester, New Jersey.

Barry was born and raised in Peapack-Gladstone in the Somerset Hills area of New Jersey, where his family has deep roots. He received his undergraduate education at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, and later studied architecture and urban planning at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.

During his corporate career, Barry was selected as a David Rockefeller Fellow, a program sponsored by the Partnership for New York City to prepare senior corporate executives for leadership roles in civic and public affairs in the city.

Over the years, Barry has served as a director, trustee, or officer of several not-for-profit organizations and foundations, and he has also been a consultant on various management and corporate governance matters. These organizations and foundations have included the Schiff Natural Lands Trust; The Downtown Alliance, which manages the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Business Improvement District; the Bruno Walter Foundation; the New York Choral Society; The Arc of New Jersey; Friends of P.S. 165, Inc.; the Historical Society of the Somerset Hills; and the National Retail Foundation.

Barry was also the executive producer of two documentary films, one promoting the employment of people with developmental disabilities (titled “EmployABILITY,” narrated by James Earl Jones) and one about the making of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. mural that hangs in the main Washington, D.C. public library named in Dr. King’s memory.