Barry was born in Aberdeen, SD as the second child of nine children to Donald and Phyllis Grote. He attended Aberdeen public Schools and graduated from Aberdeen Central High School in 1961. Barry also attended Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota for 2 yrs before transferring to South Dakota State University where he obtained a degree in Civil Engineering. During the summer of his Jr and Sr years he was hired by the State of Alaska to work for the highway dept as a student intern (and drove there on gravel roads).
Following graduation he was hired by McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft in St Louis, Missouri and was assigned to the F-4 Phantom design team. In 1967 he took a military leave of absence after being accepted into the Air Force Pilot Training Program. Barry's Air Force career took him to bases in Texas and Oklahoma where his daughters Chaille and Cheri were born in 1969 and 1971.
In 1972, Barry returned to McDonnell-Douglas in St. Louis with Janice and the girls. An airline career followed with Eastern Airlines and training in Miami, Florida where he was then based out of New York City and Chicago. He was hired on August 13, 1973. During the pilot layoffs in 1974 he was hired as an engineer in the Environmental Protection Agency for the State of South Dakota and the family relocated to Pierre, SD for four years.
In 1978 he returned to his airline career with Eastern Airlines and the family re-located to Crystal Lake, IL where he flew for Eastern and then for United Airlines (based in Chicago), until his retirement in 2003. Over those 25 years he raised his two daughters with Janice, made a lifetime network of friends in Crystal Lake, and also walked both Chaille & Cheri down the aisle in 1998 and 2001.
By nature of his work serving in the Air Force from 1967-1971, and then throughout his career as an commercial airline pilot for Eastern Airlines and United Airlines, Barry traveled the earth many times flying everything from T-37s and T-38s in the US Air force as an instructor pilot, to ‘controlled crash’ landing 747’s as a commercial airline pilot at major international airports around the globe.
