Barry Nickell, 75, of Kansas City, Missouri, passed away August 13, 2026 at Bishop Spencer Place Memory Unit.

Barry was born May 3, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Wendell Kay Nickell and Waitstill (Ashbaugh) Nickell, and was raised in Prairie Village, Topeka and Salina, Kansas. He attended Kansas University from 1969-1973, earning a degree in Chemistry. After university, he studied medicine at Kansas University Medical Center, receiving his MD in 1976. Following a rotating internship at St. Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City, Barry went on to complete his residency in internal medicine, also at St. Luke’s Hospital. 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 53 years. Three children were born from that marriage, Ellen Ashley, 1981, Elliott John 1983 and Carrie Elizabeth 1986.

He was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his wife Margaret and their three children, daughter Ellen, son Elliott, daughter-in-law Elizabeth White and granddaughter Emma, daughter Carrie, son-in-law Fernando Maldonado-Martinez and granddaughters Adaline, Ella and Charlotte, sister Sherry Nickell, sister Nancy Kinzie, brother in-law David Kinzie, sister Karen Nickell, brother-in-law Andrew Wentzel, sister Stacy Nickell, brother-in-law Russell Brown, sister-in-law Kathy Loeb, brother-in-law Fred Brown and as well as many nieces and nephews.

Barry had a lifelong love of music. He played violin in the Medical Arts Symphony for 40 years, served as its president at one point, and worked hard over the years to promote and raise funds for the organization, based at KU Med. However, the most important thing to him, was always his children, Ellen, Elliott and Carrie.

He was an avid tennis player and played all over the city with his many tennis friends. He was an avid gardner and had 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. 

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

Services will be at 10:00 am on September 5, 2026 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Kansas City where he will be interred in the memorial garden.

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