I’m very interested in reading his paper when it comes out. I hope he explains how he was able to get interviews with Barry’s friends— the CBC said they found that difficult when they were making their podcast.
Writer Feng Gao’s blog posts have been linked here before by other members, he also has taken an academic’s approach to writing about the case. I think he must have spent time at the Toronto Reference Library in order to research his blog posts about the case, as he cited very old articles.
“Barry Sherman, in fact, had a shy and reserved personality since childhood, in contrast to his aggressiveness in business. Joel Ulster, a friend from his high school days who at Sherman’s funeral in December 2017 called himself Sherman’s “oldest friend” as in Part 1, had known it well and talked about it decades ago in 1992: “It’s always been remarkable for me to see him speaking in public or in business, because socially he’s so much different,” said Joel Ulster, Sherman’s oldest and closest friend. The two met in high school.
Sherman, the younger of two children, was born in 1942 in Toronto and grew up near Bathurst north of St. Clair.
His parents wanted to call him Barry, but thinking that didn’t sound formal enough, registered his name as Bernard.
“He was shy. That’s still true of him today. He’s always very intense, hard-working, highly focused, the most intelligent person I’ve ever come across,” Ulster said in an interview.
And other acquaintances confirm that the same Barry Sherman who now regularly bites the heads off government bureaucrats will show up at a party and stand by himself, barely speaking unless spoken to.
“But in business he didn’t care if it were 1,000 people against one, as long as he thought he was right. He has supreme confidence . . . and there has been personal animosity toward him because he’s direct, aggressive and confident.””
fgaoposts.wordpress.com
There’s an old interview with Barry at the link above and he discusses the impact of his father’s death at a young age and how it affected his work ethic.
