Megan Barry, the mayor of Nashville, announced Sunday that her 22-year-old son had died of an apparent overdose.
Barry and her husband Bruce said in a statement they received the “news no parents should ever have to hear” on Saturday, that Max “suffered from an overdose and passed away. We cannot begin to describe the pain and heartbreak that comes with losing our only child,” the couple’s statement said. “Our son was a kind soul full of life and love for his family and friends.”
Young Barry was in Denver when he died, the statement said.
He had graduated in June from the University of Puget Sound.
No information was immediately available about the circumstances of his death, including what substance was responsible.
The Tennessean said his death occurred in Littleton, Colo., a suburb of Denver where he moved after graduation. The Jefferson County coroner told the paper that the results of an autopsy were not yet available.
Max Barry was described as “smart” and “personable” by Dean Masullo, a former adviser to him when he was a student at the University of Nashville, the paper said. He was working in construction.
More than half a million people died of drug overdoses between 2000 and 2015, most of them involving opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Megan Barry was elected in 2015 after serving as a member of the Metro Council. She holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University’s Owen School of Management and had worked as a compliance officer for private companies before attaining public office. Her husband, Bruce, is a professor of organizational studies at Vanderbilt.
