About

Barry has a long history of public service and commitment to the community:

“I was raised in the suburbs of New York City, on Long Island. While I liked the intensity and cosmopolitan nature of the New York area, I left as soon as I could, attending Duke University. I have resided in North Carolina since my first day as a freshman in August 1968.

For 32 of the intervening years I’ve lived in rural Orange County, where I farmed before becoming the caretaker at Moorefields southwest of Hillsborough. A 1785 house on the National Register of Historic Places, Moorefields sits amid an 84-acre wildlife refuge nearly adjacent to Seven Mile Creek. I arrived here in 1978, three years after I began writing professionally on politics, history, environmental issues, and sports on a freelance basis.

My love of the land, and of history, coupled with a professional’s passion for getting at the truth, have informed my work life and political life ever since. I have been involved in public service in Orange County for more than two decades as both an advisory board member and an elected official.

Since 1995 I’ve been married to Robin Lackey Jacobs, cat fancier and executive director of the Eno River Association. Currently five cats, four strays and a pound refugee, and two dogs, both strays, keep us tamed.”