John Rumsey Barrows III, 65
FALMOUTH -- John Rumsey Barrows, beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend, died at home with his family on Sept. 26, 2014, following a brave struggle with cancer. He was kind, funny, intelligent, creative, thoughtful and generous. He was a graceful and natural man.
John was born in Greenwich Village, N.Y., in 1948, to Patricia (Lang) and John R. Barrows II. Most of his childhood was spent in Stony Point, N.Y. The home was filled with musicians, writers and intellectuals, while the neighbors were skilled in the natural world. He was able to catch brook trout by hand, and he could converse endlessly with anyone intuitive enough to keep up. He left home at the age of 16, and began his family at the age of 20. He met his life partner, Sally, in Santa Fe, N.M. They moved to Maine in 1973 with their two daughters. There, together with friends and family, they built a house in Falmouth that is still the family home.
Carpenter, sculptor, pattern maker, scale model builder, structural designer, and inventor, he joined Sally's framing business in 2001, and transformed it into Galeyrie Maps and Custom Framers, building a digital map library, hand-coloring many maps. He was fearless when it came to anything made with his exquisite hands. He used them to help many family and friends.
Two primary passions were humor and food. He was an omnivore of both. From Booth to Gorey, it was hard to tell if he was being dark or funny, usually both, always delighting in paradox. Although his love of food was rooted in the garden, he also loved shopping at Micucci's and Harbor Fish in Portland, and Sahadi's in Brooklyn. Depending on what was fresh that day, you never knew what gift would be on your plate that night, only that it would be beautiful, delicious, and made from the heart. On the other hand, he wouldn't turn down a Jordan's hotdog at a ball game, or a lemon ice from Court Pastry either, big grin included.
John is survived by his wife, Sarah 'Sally' Galey Barrows; his daughters, Rose Knight Barrows of Aztec, N.M., and her son, Elijah, and Zo' (Mark) Pellegrino of Brooklyn, N.Y., and their children, Leila and Sebastian; his sister, Leslie (Phil) Aaholm; his nieces, Chelsea Agee, Liz Beal, Natalie and Alison Galey, his nephews, Eric (Caroline Johnson) Aaholm, Sonny (Abbi) Beal; his malamute/border collie, Tuck; several grandnieces, grandnephews and siblings-in-law; legions of friends; and his AA community, so many of whom came forward to support the family during the ordeal of his illness.
A celebration of John's life will take place at the Pellegrino homestead in Concord Township next May. Please contact Sally if you wish to attend.
If you wish to contribute to research for the alleviation of intractable nausea you can send a tax-deductible gift to: www.projectcbd.org/donate/
or Project CBD
P.O. Box 260
Headsburg, California 95488