Barry W. Berman

Barry Wayne Berman, of Woburn, a man who could work with anything metal, mechanical, or electrical, who loved his two sons and four grandchildren, died on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, of complications from a long illness. He was 81.

Born to Louis Berman and Hester (Shepard) Berman in Winchester, Massachusetts, on Feb. 20, 1944, Barry spent his early childhood working for his father’s business, North Woburn Pharmacy, where he thoroughly enjoyed operating the soda fountain.

He attended Winchester High School. After he graduated in 1963, he drove a truck for Converse sneaker company and then Peterson Party Rentals (formerly called Peterson Chair) in Winchester. He received his B.S. in Business Administration from Northeastern University in 1972.

Barry had a 1932 Model A two-seat dragster with a chopped and channeled windshield that he bought with his lifelong friend Steven Dewar in the 1960s. The pair would haul the car in a trailer to drag races in Massachusetts, New York, and at the New England Dragway in Epping, New Hampshire. Any winnings went right back into the car.

He sold it in 1968 to buy his future wife, Elaine Bernstein, an engagement ring. The pair married on Aug. 10, 1968, in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, and had an apartment in Stoneham, then a house in Woburn, before settling on Reeves Road in Bedford with their two boys, Eric and Josh. It was there that Barry launched his successful company, B&B Auto Supply. He provided auto parts such as air and oil filters, spark plugs, brake pads, and windshield wipers to a loyal list of auto repair shops and service stations in Northern Middlesex County from Lexington to Lowell. He was still taking orders until the week of his death.

Barry was devoted to his boys. He taught them the twin life lessons of discipline and hard work, having them haul cases of parts including heavy muffler clamps to the basement and work on their friends’ and neighbors’ cars in the garage.

He also taught them to fish from a 16-foot tri-hull motorboat. The family would head out from the North Shore to fish flounder, blues, stripers, and sea bass. Once his boys got interested in soccer, Barry – who was a hockey player – learned the game to become their first coach. He eventually became commissioner and then president of the Middlesex Soccer League and spent every weekend at games with his sons until they went to high school.

Barry loved golden retrievers and almost always had a pair by his side including Fetch It and Sunny, Trapper and Wanda, then Penny and Sadie (a chocolate lab). There were cats in the mix too: Peanut, Mickey the Siamese and Muffin the All-American Cat.

Barry was a fan of Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy novels and was a lifelong Patriots fan. He had season tickets in the ‘70s when the team moved into Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough and still called one or both of his sons after almost every game. He also enjoyed hunting pheasant with his late brother Paul, with whom he used to have coffee three times a week at Paul’s gas station and body shop in Billerica, Berman’s Repair & Sale.

Barry was a man of catch phrases – “If you can’t see it from an airplane;” “Would you hold the light so I can see something?;” and “Close enough for government work” – and developed a love of cooking as he got older. He made cranberry sauce for the Thanksgiving Day table the week before he died.

Barry met his longtime partner, Phyllis Berman, in the early 2000s and spent many years with her enjoying a family lake house in New Hampshire and wintering in Florida. He will be buried in her family plot in Lawrence.

Barry Wayne Berman is survived by Phyllis Berman, his longtime partner, of Newton; her son and daughter-in-law Michael and Alex Wade and their children Marisa and Austin of Sudbury; son and daughter-in-law Jeff and Laurie Wade and their children Zoe and Emily of Long Island; son, Eric Berman and his partner Julia Beddes of Natick; grandchildren Cole and Tess of Natick; daughter-in-law Elizabeth Berman and her partner Stephen Bernacki of Natick; son Josh and daughter-in-law Damaris “Demi” Berman and their children Jaret and Ari of Cambridge; sister Leeta Sinrich of Salem, and; many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his brother Paul Berman.

A graveside service will be held on Sunday, December 7th at 11 a.m. at Temple Emanuel of Andover Cemetery, Mt. Vernon St., Lawrence. The family will receive visitors for Shiva at the family’s home in Natick on Sunday immediately following the service, Monday from 4 to 8 p.m., and Tuesday 4 to 8 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a financial or food donation to your local food pantry.