Barry A. Friedman, M.D., 82, retired infectious disease specialist and former board president of the Tucson Jewish Museum & Holocaust Center, died Sept. 25, 2026.
Dr. Friedman was born Oct. 29, 1943, to Elizabeth and Sol Friedman in Dayton, Ohio. He received his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and his medical degree from The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
He established a private practice in Tucson and later worked in infection control at Tucson Medical Center. He was chair of the Board of Medical Examiners of Arizona, now the Arizona Medical Board.
As a child, Dr. Friedman’s family sent him to summer camp at Indian Acres in Fryeburg, Maine, so he would avoid catching polio. He was later a counselor and then camp doctor at Indian Acres. He and his wife, Madeline, built a cabin on the property bought from the camp in 1989, and spent many summers there.
Dr. Friedman was instrumental in the formation of Tucson’s Jewish History Museum, directing its growth from an historic restoration project to its opening in 2005. He loved serving as a docent and was board president from 2006 to 2015. He also led historic Jewish cemetery tours. When the museum campus reopened in 2016 after the expansion of the Holocaust History Center, it named the original museum the Friedman Family Jewish History Museum.
In 2012, the museum honored Dr. Friedman with its Jewish Heritage Award, recognizing his “contribution to preserving and teaching the Jewish heritage of the American Southwest.” The museum later established a Volunteer of the Year Award in his name. The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona honored Dr. Friedman along with Ray Davies, Rabbi Thomas Louchheim, and Beth Alpert Nakhai with a Special Recognition Award in 2015 for their work with the Jewish History Museum and Holocaust education.
Dr. Friedman was a trustee of the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona from 2011-12. He and Madeline signed the Endowment Book of Life at the JCF in the late 1990s and established the Barry and Madeline Friedman Family Endowment Fund at the Foundation in 2014.
Dr. Friedman is survived by his wife of 43 years, Madeline; children, Bruce, Joel (Tanya), Gabrielle and Zev; five grandchildren, Maxine, Jackson, Oliver, Jude, and Jonathan; and sister, Joann (Jeff) Timbanard of Paradise Valley, Arizona.
Services will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 10 a.m. at the Evergreen Mortuary & Cemetery chapel, with Rabbi Sara Metz and Cantorial Soloist Nicole Chorny officiating.
