Barry J. Carroll, 35-year Club member, 74

Barry J. Carroll, a businessman, adventurer, photographer, filmmaker and 35-year member of the National Press Club, died Dec. 23 after brief illness in Lake Forest, Ill. He was 74 and had homes in Lake Forest and East Chop, Martha's Vineyard, Mass. The following is a summary of information from an obituary provided by his family.

Carroll's multiple careers included working as a manufacturing executive, real estate developer, bank director, university trustee, photographer, and filmmaker. He graduated from Lake Forest High School and earned a B.A. in humanities from Shimer College, which awarded him an honorary doctorate of letters in 1995. He attended St. Claire’s Hall, Oxford, England, and earned his master of business administration from Harvard Business School in 1969. He was born in Highland Park, Ill., and grew up in the village of Bannockburn and Lake Forest, Ill. He met his wife of 53 years, Barbara Pehrson Carroll, while in high school. He was an avid reader who enjoyed enjoyed sailing, flying his airplane, playing many musical instruments, and singing folk music.

In the early 1960’s, he played guitar with the Careless Lovers, and later The Mandrell Singers, opening for such artists as the Mamas and the Papas, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and Dave Van Ronk. “The apex of my career was back in the Pop Folk Music era when I played at the Bitter End Coffee House in New York on the same marquee as Cass Elliott,” he once said.

As a project for school, Mr. Carroll and his wife started the Unicorn coffeehouse in Mt. Carroll, Ill. At the age of 25 he became the CEO of the J.C. Deagan, Co., a Chicago musical instrument manufacturing company. He eventually owned and ran that business. He joined the board of the Lake Forest Symphony where he served as vice president and later chairman. He received a Golden Baton award for 50 years of volunteer service and support to the symphony and the Music Institute of the Symphony Association. As a private pilot, he and his co-pilot wife flew all over the Midwest, New England, and the Caribbean. They flew rented planes from Hawaii to Thailand. He was an avid sailor and enjoyed the Caribbean and Martha’s Vineyard.

In 1970, he became a founding board member for Shimer College and the Shimer College Foundation for Liberal Arts, serving as chairman from 1975-1978. He also served for decades as trustee on the boards of Roosevelt University, St. Xavier University, Barat College, and the University of Illinois Eye Research Institute.

In 1983-84, Carroll was appointed to the President’s Commission on Executive Exchange and was Special Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Education, Terrel Bell. During a 1989 scientific expedition to Eastern Antarctica he explored mineral resources while SCUBA diving under the ice and using helicopters and a hovercraft to photograph the terrain and wildlife. His produced numerous photography and videography projects on a variety of scientific and industrial subjects over four decades. He served dozens of educational, cultural, and financial institutions as a trustee, director, president, or officer.

His many memberships in associations and clubs included the National Institute of Technology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Association, American Institute Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Army Navy Club in Washington, D.C., the Washington Metropolitan Club, and the Society of the Cincinnati.

In his autobiography, he said he "lived in an extraordinarily rich and fast changing time and drunk in many, many of the opportunities and joys and experiences that any one person might ever expect in a number of lifetimes. I have chased shrimp boats and freight trains in a helicopter, hanging by just a seat belt 500 feet over the water in steep banked turns, filmed oil drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, shot ducks in the alligator lined bayous of Louisiana, 'slipped the surly bounds of earth' in my light airplane, dove to the blackest depths of Lake Geneva, and nearly died from asphyxiation in a grain dryer. I have mostly owned and driven/flown/sailed 10 motorcycles, a wide range of tractors with up to 12 gears, innumerable cars, five or more types of light planes, a Bell 206 helicopter, many sloops and ketches, a hovercraft and a locomotive.”

The family held a private funeral on Jan. 8. Survivors include his wife, five children and 11 grandchildren. The family appreciates donations in Barry Carroll’s name to Lake Forest Symphony (www.lakeforestsymphony.org), The Martha’s Vineyard Museum (www.mvmuseum.org) and Shimer College (www.shimer.edu).