Much the same at 50

Alicia Robinson

A few things have changed at John Barry & Associates Management

Engineering, but as the company celebrates its 50th anniversary this

year, it remains family-owned and family-run.

One innovation at Bob and Ted Barry’s Newport Boulevard

engineering firm is that most of the firm’s work is done on computers

now. So the brothers rarely use the manual drafting skills they

learned as young men coming into the business.

Aside from that major change, the firm has stayed largely the same

since their father, John Barry, a business and engineering professor

at UCLA and Loyola University, started it in 1954.

Most of the company’s work is in facility planning and

engineering. The Barry brothers have designed production lines for

manufacturing firms, helped companies use their office space more

efficiently and planned moves for businesses that were expanding or

downsizing.

“We’re helpful on the way up, and we’re also helpful on the way

down,” Ted Barry said.

They’ve worked with Four Seasons Hotels, Disneyland, Titleist golf

supplies and variety of other manufacturing and service firms.

Opening a business was a natural step for John Barry after his

engineering students began coming to him with consulting jobs, and

his five children soon shared in the work.

“Growing up, we would literally start off emptying the

wastebaskets,” Bob Barry said.

The brothers eventually learned drafting and had the opportunity

to join the company, but pursuing other interests wasn’t frowned

upon, Bob Barry said.

The younger Barry brother began with the firm after college, while

Ted Barry worked in a manufacturing facility and then in a large

engineering firm before returning to the family business full time.

“I think it was always a very interesting part of our life, and it

was always fun to know what was going on,” Bob Barry said.

Since then, a major change has been the advent of computer

drafting. It allows Ted Barry to bring his computer into the facility

he’s working on and enter information on the spot. The firm can also

use computers to show clients what they’re planning and make

adjustments based on the clients’ comments, Bob Barry said.

While the brothers said they’re not sure yet if their children

will come into the business someday, there are promising signs that

it will stay in the family. Ted Barry’s oldest son has done market

surveys and computer drafting for the company, and Bob Barry said his

11-year-old daughter has shown an interest in being an architect.

“She said, ‘Do you mind if I end up being your boss,’ so that was

kind of fun,” Bob Barry said. “I said, ‘No problem.’”