Barry B. Burr, longtime reporter and editorial page editor at Pensions & Investments, died Sunday at age 70 in Chicago after a long battle with cancer.
Mr. Burr retired from P&I's publisher Crain Communications in 2016 after 32 years, during which time he received numerous industry awards including the Northwestern University Medill School/Strong Funds award for editorial columns, the Peter Lisagor award for editorials, and the National Herbert Bayard Swope award for news writing.
"He was a terrific reporter," said Michael J. Clowes, former P&I editor. "He could get things from people that no one else could."
In charge of writing the newspaper's editorials in the last years of his employment, Mr. Burr's encyclopedic knowledge of the industry was invaluable, Mr. Clowes said.
Plus, his extensive industry contacts also enabled him to secure timely and informative opinion pieces from leading industry experts, Mr. Clowes added.
Throughout his journalism career he interviewed many notable figures such as Nobel Prize in Economics winners Milton Friedman, Eugene Fama, Franco Modigliani, and Merton Miller; politicians such as Ronald Reagan; Gen. Paul Tibbets; and actor Jimmy Stewart.
Before joining P&I in 1984, Mr. Burr earned his MBA at University of Notre Dame Du Lac with a concentration in finance and accounting after earning a BA in history at Indiana University. He would go on to write for papers including The Royal Gazette in Bermuda, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, The Daily Journal in Caracas, Venezuela, and The Morgantown Daily in West Virginia.
Mr. Burr is survived by his wife, Vivian; daughter, Lesley; and son-in-law, Peter Scher.
