STEVE BARRY, MA, RPA

Manager, Cultural Resources

Education
M.A., Anthropology, University of Alabama, 2004, B.A., Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, 1999
What are three things you can't live without?
My wife, daughter, and son.
Where's the most interesting place you've been?
I lived and worked at a Maya city site in Belize called Caracol for a few months in between college and grad school. We lived in huts with no doors, no running water, and only had minimal electricity a few hours per week. I was there helping a Penn State doctoral student complete his Ph.D. dissertation research. It was truly a wildly different experience to live and work in the rainforest without most modern amenities for months. I got to climb to the top of the main pyramid (Caana, still the tallest man-made structure in Belize) and watch a meteor shower. With no significant light pollution in that part of the world, the night sky was surreal.

Bio

Steve Barry is the Manager and Lead Archaeologist for Cultural Resources throughout the company. He supervises and coordinates archaeologists, architectural historians, and GIS staff. He joined McCormick Taylor in 2007.

"On my very first day," Steve says, "I traveled to Richmond to attend a meeting with a client regarding potential unmarked human burials within a project. It was a somber meeting given the subject. I was introduced as the project archaeologist and the head of the client's cultural resources division asked how long I'd been working for McCormick Taylor. I deadpanned, 'About seven hours.' There were several seconds of long silence and then everyone started to relax and laugh."

Steve likes having the opportunity to work on something that is culturally important and was previously unknown or little understood. McCormick Taylor will soon start the SEPTA Conshohocken Phase II NEPA Project. There is a high likelihood that we will encounter remnants of the Schuylkill Canal, one of its locks, and a lockhouse, as well as very deep pre-contact archaeological resources. It will be a complex project with a lot of logistic challenges, which Steve is looking forward to.

In his free time, Steve enjoys listening to music, reading, and watching movies with his family. During the pandemic, he started building models for the first time in over 30 years. Steve is also interested in learning how to play the bass guitar.