Barry Marshall Sax

Barry Marshall Sax passed away peacefully at his home in Oak Park, California on the morning of June 28, 2014 after a short bout with cancer.  Barry was born into a working class family in the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia. He was the middle child, with two sisters -- Roslyn, 5 years his senior, and Diane, 6 years younger. Barry was 11 when his mother passed away, and his life changed forever.

Barry graduated from Philadelphia's Central High School, but realized he would never be the person he wanted to be in Philadelphia. He left home at age 19, and made his way, alone, to Los Angeles. He found a job, a room at a boarding house, enrolled in Los Angeles City College, and then won a scholarship to UCLA, where he majored in International Relations. He went on to receive his J.D. from Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law.  He started his law career in the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, and several years later was recruited by The Department of Health and Human Services to work on Medicare fraud issues in Washington, DC. In Washington,  Barry and his first wife divorced, and he met his second wife, Carolyn. They moved back to California in 1997, where Barry worked as an Administrative Law Judge with The Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals in Woodland Hills.

He retired in 2008, and was able to devote more time to his interest in military history. His passion was telling the story of The Immortal Four Chaplains of World War II.  He wrote a number of articles and was in the process of writing a book on the subject. At the time of his death he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Chapel of Four Chaplains in Philadelphia.  Barry and Carolyn had a wonderful life together, with 4 children and 3 grandchildren between them. They loved to travel and had visited all seven continents.

Barry will be dearly missed by many people whose lives he touched, but most of all by his loving family:  his wife, Carolyn; his children, Michael and Stephanie Sax; his stepdaughters, Christin Phelps Webb, and Kerry Phelps Robinson; their spouses Matthew Webb and Nick Robinson; his grandchildren, Natalie and Timothy Webb and Joe Robinson; his sister and her husband, Diane and James Shneer; nieces and nephews, and his Little Brother, Mark Hyman. He was predeceased by his sister, Roslyn, in 2013.

In keeping with his wishes, Barry was cremated and his ashes will be scattered in the Pacific Ocean. Anyone wishing to make a donation in Barry's name may do so at either UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center or the Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation--both causes close to his heart.