Barry Nakell

Barry Nakell, age 82, died in Chapel Hill on Sept. 17, 2025, but not before leaving his mark on earth. He was a lawyer, law professor, vigorous advocate for social justice, athlete, father, grandfather, brother and uncle.

Nakell served on the faculty of the UNC School of Law for 27 years. He led the integration of the law school faculty and facilitated the integration of the law school student body. He served as the first faculty advisor to the undergraduate and then the law school LGBTQ+ organizations. He established joint degree programs between the law school and the department of city and regional planning and the business school. He initiated the law school’s continuing education program, as well as the law school’s no smoking policy (shortly before the university developed a no smoking policy). He wrote and advocated against the death penalty.

During the Vietnam War, Nakell represented war protesters and draft dodgers. He also organized the law school’s education program about the Vietnam War. Nakell represented several Indian Tribes, including the Lumbee, the Tuscarora, the Occaneechi, and the Meherrin. He brought litigation that overturned the discriminatory double voting system in Robeson County. Nakell also brought cases that supported women’s rights, employment rights, prisoners’ rights, and religious freedom. He fought in the courts to protect the tenure system at UNC. Nakell won cases in the United States Supreme Court establishing prisoners’ rights and post-conviction remedies. He founded North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, which has been so successful it is now funded by the state.

After growing up in urban Detroit, Nakell moved with his family to Los Angeles, where he discovered the outdoors and explored it as often and in every way he could. His running to and from the law school with his work clothes in a backpack became a familiar daily sight for many in Chapel Hill. He loved hiking, biking, and skiing. He visited many of the national parks. He was a lifelong swimmer, and later in life he enjoyed tennis at The Farm and ballroom dancing at the Fred Astaire Dance Studio of Durham, inviting his family to his fun dance performances.

Nakell loved international travel. He enjoyed cultural trips all around the world with Backroads, and with friends and family. He was proud to be a vegetarian, and enjoyed many gatherings with the Triangle Vegetarian Society, which he helped found, along with animal activists Tom and Nancy Reagan.

Nakell was active in the Chapel-Hill Durham Jewish Federation, serving as its president. He founded its Roundtable of Blacks and Jews and its Roundtable of Palestinians and Jews. He was also active with the Human Kindness Foundation and with its leaders, Sita and Bo Lozoff, until Bo’s early death. He was always anti-violence.

In 1989, he was honored by the ACLU, which awarded him the Frank Porter Graham Civil Liberties award. In his acceptance speech, he celebrated the progressive and freedom movements that made this country great. His most influential teacher was Aaron Gorrbein and his mentor was Dan Pollitt.

Nakell leaves behind his family, including daughter Jessica Burroughs, her husband Michael Burroughs, and their two sons Reuben and Levi, and daughter Stacy Nakell and her partner Doug Holloway. He especially loved being a grandfather to Reuben and Levi, taking them on a trip to the NC mountains every year of their childhoods and sharing with them his values of civil rights and social justice. He also leaves behind brother Martin Nakell and his wife Rebecca Goodman, sister Linda Nakell and her husband Robert Dawson, along with their son Joren Dawson, his wife Jascha Boyce and their son Swae Boyce, his first wife, Lynne, with whom he has remained close, and his best friend, Rich Snover and his wife Dorette, who were like family. He was predeceased by his parents Jack and Briné (née Bernice Davis) Nakell.

Nakell has chosen a green burial at Bluestem Cemetery for his internment. Funeral arrangements are through Hall-Wynne Funeral Service, and online condolences can be left at: www.hallwynne.com – select obituaries. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in his memory to https://porch-durham.org/.