Harold Vincent “Hal” Barry, MFH of the Bear Creek Hounds (GA), passed away at age eighty-two on May 31, 2022, at Piedmont Hospital in Newnan, Georgia.
His passing came on the day after the Virginia Foxhound Show, which had resumed after two years of cancellations due to the Covid pandemic. Hal was able to catch up with many of his foxhunting friends after the long separation, but sadly for the last time.
Hal grew up, one of three boys in a family of six children, in a small rural town in Iowa.
“I would have been a farmer if my father could have afforded more land,” he told me many years ago.
Instead, Hal went to college, took a summer job in construction as a carpenter, and got a taste for building. Eventually, he wound up in Atlanta developing commercial real estate.
The Barry Company reshaped the Atlanta skyline. One early project, the Allen Plaza, was the buzz of Atlanta. It was a planned downtown mixed-use development including three high-rise office buildings and a hotel/residential condo tower. Others followed.
“It’s the thrill of the chase both in development and foxhunting,” he once said. “You lose some, and you account for some. I’ve fallen from horses, and I’ve fallen in business, and I’ve been able to pick myself back up from both. It’s creative and thrilling.”
Hal and his wife Linda lived the Atlanta city life for years, playing tennis and running, but in 1981 he began having problems with his hips which curtailed both activities. Looking for something else to do, he set out to buy fifty acres out in the country and wound up buying six hundred acres. The couple began shooting and riding and received their first exposure to foxhunting in the mid-1980s. Linda hunted with both the Shakerag Hounds and the Midland Fox Hounds (GA), and Hal became intrigued by hunting, but from a distance.
In 1989 Hal had both hips replaced, took riding lessons, and six months later rode in his first hunt, in the first field, with the Midland Fox Hounds in their Fitzpatrick, Alabama country.
“I’ll never forget that day,” he said. “The morning, the crispness in the air, the beauty of the land, the hounds, the scarlet coats. I can’t remember hearing a hound speak, but the beauty of the thing got to me. I couldn’t leave it alone.”
Thus began a very special relationship with his mentor, Ben Hardaway. Barry opened country around his Moreland farm in Newnan, Georgia, and got Hardaway to bring hounds and hunt the country. Because it was unknown country to Hardaway, Hal found himself riding with Hardaway as a guide.
“I didn’t know anything about hounds and hound work, but riding in Ben’s back pocket, I realize that I had experienced a lifetime opportunity that left me hopelessly addicted to the cry of hounds,” Hal said.
His new interest in hounds led Hal to begin walking Midland puppies—as many as twenty to thirty puppies a year! He exercised them first on foot, then on horseback. He got himself a horn and schooled the puppies to come to the horn.
“It was more damn fun!” he said.
The next step was inevitable. Hal got some old hounds from Midland and began hunting them himself.
“I hounded Hardaway for more hounds,” he said.
Sometimes they worked for him, and sometimes they didn’t. He bred a bi*ch he had out of Midland Secret to a dog he had by Midland’s Faraday-Hardaway line from England. He produced two litters from these two exceptional tail lines. Soon Hal had twenty-five to thirty hounds—a respectable farmer’s pack—and he built a new kennel. The next time Midland came to hunt his country, Hardaway looked at the kennel and exclaimed, “Hal, I could put a hundred fifty hounds in there!”
Hardaway’s Joint-Master, Mason Lampton, also encouraged Hal. “Go for it,” Mason said. “Get Registered. We’ve got to give you the territory back.”
Then the injury. A horse went down with Hal, breaking a vertebra in his back. Hal had already become conscious of a growing conflict between the needs of the hounds for regular routine and the needs of his business for time and attention. Between the injury and the conflict, Hal gave serious thought to giving up the hounds.
Then MFHA Executive Director Dennis Foster told Hal about a young Welshman, Guy Cooper, then hunting hounds in Canada, who had the desire and a wife that rode like the wind, and who wanted to relocate. Hal invited Cooper to Georgia for a meeting, and a week later, they had an agreement. Some months later, in 2003, the Bear Creek Hounds were accepted by the MFHA as a Registered pack. In January 2005, the hunt was elevated to Recognized status.
In business, Hal was well known for his passion and love of real estate. He was the President and co-founder of several real estate brokerage/development companies in Atlanta, most notably, Portman Barry Investments and Barry Real Estate Companies. He quickly became known as one of the visionaries of real estate development and had a massive impact on the landscape all over the southeast. Hal’s early successes included the financing of Perimeter Center, Cumberland Office Park, the John Portman’s Peachtree Plaza Hotel and Merchandise Mart, the Georgia Pacific Building, Interstate North Office Park, and many Ritz Carlton hotels. Hal’s development projects included over 4.5 million square feet of projects, including Northpark Town Center, Riverwood, and Allen Plaza in downtown Atlanta, and over thirty office buildings around the Southeast. The local real estate community is filled with former Barry employees who have become shining stars on their own merit. Each of them will attribute at least a part of their success to the mentoring and leadership of Hal Barry.
Hal was addicted to the “thrill of the chase,” whether pursuing a new business venture or chasing his prey on horseback. “Tally-Ho!” he would scream whether he found a new business lead or viewed the fox. He loved the Theodore Roosevelt quote, “It’s not the critic that counts,” and had it framed in his office as a strategic business reminder. Being the ultimate optimist, he was never going to be held back or told that he couldn’t do something. He was a respected and determined business leader, the consummate husband, father, grandfather, and compassionate friend.
A memorial service was held on Monday, June 6, 2022, at Saint Mary Magdalene Catholic Church in Newnan, Georgia, followed by a service and reception for close friends and family at Bear Creek Farm.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Bear Creek Hounds, 855 Bear Creek Road, Moreland, Georgia 30259, or Saint Mary Magdalene Catholic Church.
Condolences may be expressed online.
Posted June 26, 2022
Some of the above information and quotes attributed to Hal Barry were reproduced from his obituary in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.