John E. Bireley, 73, the financial brains behind the media group that turned “Barney & Friends” into a successful TV show, died Sunday, April 21, of a heart attack in an Evanston restaurant.
In the 1960s, Mr. Bireley began working as the chief financial officer at Argus Press, which was owned by the family of Richard C. Leach, who later produced “Barney.”
Mr. Bireley managed the company’s finances while Leach created different media companies that printed and published everything from inspirational posters to educational materials for the developmentally disabled.
“One guy was Mr. Creative and the other guy [Mr. Bireley] was the one who figured it out financially,” said Mr. Bireley’s son J. Michael. “It was a great pair. They worked very well together because of that.”
As the company grew, Mr. Bireley in the 1970s traveled to different countries to help establish divisions.
When Leach moved the company’s base to Texas, Mr. Bireley stayed in Chicago to oversee its operations here. Mr. Bireley also served as Leach’s corporate adviser on setting up a new commercial printing company in Texas, which eventually served as the studio for the first “Barney” shows.
Mr. Bireley retired in 1988, and since then, volunteered twice a week at Evanston Hospital. Mr. Bireley administered communion to sick Catholic patients at the hospital every Wednesday for the past 13 years.
Mr. Bireley was born in Evanston and has lived in Wilmette for the last 40 years. He received a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University Chicago in 1950. It was in college that Mr. Bireley met Leach and the two became best friends, his son said.
Mr. Bireley’s first job after college was working at the paper company where his father worked. After it closed, he worked in 1965 as an economist for the Small Business Administration, where he played an important role in developing the model for minority franchises in the Chicago area, said his son.
Besides his son, Mr. Bireley is survived by his wife, Joey; two other sons, Mark and Matthew; three daughters, Martha McCurdy, Margie Snyder and Marybeth Chess; a brother, Rev. Robert; a sister, Sister Barbara; and 19 grandchildren. Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Friday in St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, 524 9th St., Wilmette.
