Barry Nickell, 75, of Kansas City, Missouri, passed away August 13, 2026 at Bishop Spencer Place Memory Unit. Services will be held at 10:00 am on September 5, 2026 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Kansas City where he will be interred in the churchyard. 

Barry was born May 3, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Wendell Kay Nickell and Waitstill Blair (Ashbaugh) Nickell, and was raised in Prairie Village, Topeka and Salina, Kansas. He attended Kansas University from 1969-1973, earning a degree in Chemistry. He then attended medical school at Kansas University Medical Center, receiving his MD in 1976.

Following a rotating internship at St. Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, Barry completed his residency in internal medicine at St. Luke’s. After finishing his residency, he joined a private practice with Dr. Don McFarlane and Dr. Dick Lehner. Dr. Lee Lopata later joined the practice. He remained with Drs. McFarlane, Lehner and Lopata until Saint Luke’s Internal Medicine was formed in 1992. He retired from Saint Luke’s Internal Medicine in 2017, after 37 years of serving patients at St. Luke’s Hospital.

It was at KU in Russian class that he met his wife, Margaret Ruth Brown. In the summer of 1972, they traveled to the Soviet Union in a Russian language and culture program sponsored by the United Nations Council on International Educational Exchange. They were married December 22, 1973, a bond that lasted more than 52 years. Three children were born from that marriage: Ellen Ashley, 1981; Elliott John 1983; and Carrie Elizabeth, 1986.

Barry had a lifelong love of music. He played violin in the Medical Arts Symphony, based at KU Medical Center, for 40 years. During that time, he held several leadership positions, including president, and devoted considerable time and energy to raising funds for and promoting the organization.

He was an avid tennis player and played all over the city with his many tennis friends. He loved flying and for a time owned a tail dragger airplane. He was a talented gardener and tended a Monarch watch station where he grew milkweed. The family cabin in Colorado was a great love of his. He was a naturalist who knew much about the mountains, trees and flowers in Colorado. However, the most important thing to him, was always his children, Ellen, Elliott and Carrie.

Barry was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his wife Margaret; their three children, Ellen, Elliott, and Carrie; daughter-in-law Elizabeth White; son-in-law Fernando Maldonado-Martínez; and grandchildren Adaline, Emma, Ella and Charlotte. He is also survived by his sisters Sherry Nickell, Nancy Kinzie, Karen Nickell and Stacy Nickell; brothers-in-law David Kinzie, Andrew Wentzel, Russell Brown, and Fred Brown; sister-in-law Kathy Loeb, and many nieces and nephews.

The family would like to thank the caregivers at Bishop Spencer Place Memory Unit for providing care in his final days.

Memorial contributions to the Medical Arts Symphony are suggested in lieu of flowers. Checks can be mailed to Medical Arts Symphony, PO Box 15531, Lenexa, KS 66285, or online donations made at kcmasymphony.org.

Condolences may be left for the family below.