Barbara (Metsky) Kretchmar grew up in New York City, the only child of Russian immigrant parents. She is a graduate of Hunter College High School in Manhattan, Harpur College (State University of New York at Binghamton) and Syracuse University College of Law. A member of the New York and Pennsylvania Bars, she retired in 2016 after practicing law for forty-nine years. She began her career as a trial attorney for the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., then served as in-house counsel for Scott Paper Company before founding the Law Firm of Barbara S. M. Kretchmar, a law firm devoted to advertising, marketing and sales promotions law.
After marrying her husband, Ed, a Philadelphian, in 1973, she moved to Center City Philadelphia where she still lives. Ed died, at the age of forty-seven in March, 1990 after a seventeen month bout with cancer. At the time of Ed’s death, Barbara was forty-six years old and their two sons were eleven and thirteen.
Barbara has been active in many community, educational, arts and charitable organizations and activities including Big Brothers/Big Sisters, The Free Library of Philadelphia, Dance Affiliates and Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.