Dr. Richard M. Barry M.D.

Mystic - Richard M. Barry, MD, died at his home in Arden, N.C. Sept. 18, 2020, with his family at his side, two weeks following his 93rd birthday. He had recently relocated to a retirement center near Asheville, N.C., following 59 years in Mystic.

Dr. Barry was born in Orange, N.J. in 1927. A graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, he served in the U.S. Navy in World War II. He then graduated from Yale University with a BA degree and obtained his MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He served his years of internship and residency at New York Hospital Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1957, he was awarded a Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellowship to study at the Postgraduate School of Medicine, University of London, followed by a fellowship in medical neoplasia at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Disturbed by the poor results and the severe side effects of medical oncology in the 1950s, he switched his focus to internal medicine, and moved to Mystic to join the practice of Dr. William Edmonstone. Their practice grew to become the Mystic Medical Group, now part of Hartford Health Care.

Dr. Barry served as the first elected staff representative to the board of managers at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital and was instrumental in establishing the first physician staffing system for the emergency room in the 1960s, on which he served as its first chairman. Dr. Barry also helped establish the first Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) in Southeastern Connecticut and served on its board, and for a period of time, as its chairman.

An avid outdoor enthusiast and traveler, he and Harriet, his wife of 63 years, spent vacations bicycling in Europe, wilderness canoeing in Canada, skiing, golfing and traveling the world, and enjoyed many years in their vacation homes in Vermont and Rangeley, Maine. He was an avid reader and lover of history and poetry, and relished political discussion. He was a member of the Ariston Club for 48 years, a founding member of Stonington Country Club, and served on the boards of Pine Point School and Bishops Cove Condo Association.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughter, Catherine Smith of Atlanta, Ga. (Scott); his son Peter of Pisgah Forest, N.C. (Amy); and four grandchildren with whom he always enjoyed spending time. A remembrance and Celebration of his Life will be held by his family over the upcoming holidays. Donations in his honor would be welcomed by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, 4600 Park Road, Suite 100, Charlotte, NC 28209 or the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, PO Box 3790, Boone, Iowa 50037.