Barry grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He received his undergraduate degree in 1966 from Principia College, in Elsah, Illinois near St. Louis. In 1975, he received his MBA with emphasis in real estate and finance from The University of British Columbia.

He and his wife, Deborah, have lived in suburban St. Louis since 2005. Their combined family includes six adult children and eight grandchildren, scattered from the Seattle area to Long Beach, CA to Dallas, TX to Missoula, MT, to Iowa City, IA and to Metro St. Louis, MO.

He is an active member of the Rotary Club of West St. Louis County. The Rotary Motto of “Service Before Self” is his defining business motivation.

Barry invested in his first real estate in the late 1960s in British Columbia. In the following years, he gained valuable experience in commercial development, finance and brokerage, mostly in the Pacific Northwest. In his development career, he originated development volume in excess of $350 million. Projects included some of the first self-storage complexes in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada, suburban office buildings, business parks, high tech buildings, industrial warehouses, retail centers, car care centers, mixed use [office retail], apartments, condominiums, and free-standing NNN leased buildings.