Thomas Howard Barrington

Thomas Howard Barrington

Bath, Maine, 04530

March 17, 2026

Born July 30, 1935 in Boston to Edith Lilian Jones Barrington and Howard Stanley Barrington, Tom Barrington came home to Hingham, MA, joining his brother Jonathan (Jack) who was only 10 months older. His father Howard, a naval architect, often moved between shipyard and naval-architect jobs. He relocated his family over a dozen times, mostly up and down the East coast but once for several years to New Orleans during WWII. Tom spent his pre-college years at eight different schools; living on Staten Island Tom and Jack were home-schooled by their mother, who disapproved of the school system there. During these years he spent many of his waking hours playing baseball and became a life-long Yankees fan. Tom graduated from high school in New Canaan, CT in 1953, having lived there for a record five years. Tom was so good at math in high school that he tutored some of the freshmen students.

Also accepted at MIT, Tom chose Yale University in the fall of 1953. He majored in mechanical engineering after a brief stint with nuclear physics. In addition to his academic pursuits, he had a student job in the Forestry department, learned to mix a great drink, and took up the concertina. Having been in the USAF ROTC, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force upon his graduation in 1957. Tom served in the Air Force for two years, stationed first in Cheyenne Wyoming, then for 18 months in Okinawa and finally in Waco, Texas. In Okinawa he studied Japanese, discovered photography, and bought a Lambretta motor scooter that came home to the States with him. He was promoted to First Lieutenant at the end of his service.

Briefly in the early sixties, Tom and his father ran a specialty high-precision valve and fitting company with the U.S. Navy as the primary client. They started with two lathes in a garage and a drafting table in a spare room in the house, then expanded to a two-room commercial property nearby. It was during this period that Tom met and, in 1963, married Judith Ellen Mederos (Judy), another marine engineer’s daughter.

In 1965, Tom moved with Judy to Bath, Maine, to take a new job at Bath Iron Works (BIW). He worked at BIW for almost 35 years, beginning as a sales engineer. Within a few years, Tom—being in the Air Force reserve—was called up for service in the Vietnam War. When the Air Force learned that he worked for BIW, they said, “Stay right where you are.”

In the 1971, Tom had a momentary lapse and left BIW for a two-year stint in Massachusetts, working for Warren Pump Co. During his first months in Massachusetts, Tom commuted back and forth to Bath in a 1952 TD MG roadster, wearing his grandfather’s raccoon coat because the MG had no heater. These frosty commutes soon came to an end when Judy and Katie joined him in Brookfield. Returning to BIW in 1973, Tom took up the position of marine engineer. In 1983 he spent a year with three other BIW employees in Washington, DC working with the Navy on the DDG51 group of guided-missile destroyers. Tom retired from the Ironworks in 2002, as the section manager for Procurement Engineering for the DDG51 project. He was so good at his job that BIW asked him to come out of retirement twice to work on new Combat Ship Program proposals; he did not turn them down.

Always committed to community service, Tom was an early supporter of the Bath Marine Museum/Maine Maritime Museum (MMM) while he lived in the Winnegance section of Bath. In retirement he expanded his service to the community, becoming deeply involved in the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust as a director; he was instrumental in obtaining Thorne Head Preserve as well as leading the accreditation committee. Tom also served on the City Assessment Board Review Committee and was an active participant in the Bath Forestry Committee, where he spent a good part of the summer watering the city’s new trees or building trails on the City-owned property at Butler Head in North Bath.  

Tom was an accomplished mechanic and classic car enthusiast. While in high school in New Canaan, he restored and hand-detailed a 1932 Model B Ford coupe and repaired all the family cars. In college, he participated in classic sports-car road rallies. In the first year of his marriage to Judy, Tom restored a 1952 TD MG. He tested the rebuilt but uninstalled engine by placing it in the downstairs entryway of their apartment and putting a pipe out the door for the exhaust—which immediately rose up to the opened second-story window and wafted all through the house! For decades he maintained the Lambretta that he brought home from Japan, first for his kid brother to commute to his summer job, and later converted it into an apple-tree sprayer.

Tom was also a remarkable worker in wood. He has owned and restored two wooden sailboats, the 21 ft. Goudy and Stevens catboat Casco Belle, built in 1927, and the 36 ft. sloop Whistler, Knudsen-built in 1952. An accomplished builder, Tom built a float and ramp for his boats on the Kennebec River. A lover of ritual and ceremony, he raised and lowered the United States and Maine State flags, daily on a flagpole of spruce that he shaped and finished himself. Along with Judy, he managed the dismantling, move, and installation of a late 18th-century home from downtown Bath on a new foundation in North Bath, a home in which he lived for the remainder of his life. He oversaw the installation of the modern systems including a combination wood-burning and oil-heating furnace. Never afraid of heights, Tom covered the many roofs with cedar shingles by himself. Perhaps his greatest love was using his chain saw to stay ahead of the blow-downs and standing-dead trees on his North Bath property. These trees provided all the wood to keep the furnace and fireplaces in the old house stoked on weekends.

Tom was a thoughtful and giving man who cared deeply for and was dearly loved by those near him. Tom loved a party and enjoyed wearing his boater straw hat or his grandfather’s black derby for the occasion. He played the concertina to the accompaniment of his younger brother Dave’s rollicking Irish guitar tunes into his late eighties; he sang along with Dave the week he died, remembering all the words when he could remember little else. Tom also loved classical music and was a supporter of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. He was an intrepid black-diamond skier but a less-than-sterling ice skater and dancer.

Tom was predeceased by his parents and older brother Jonathan Barrington and his sister-in-law, (Grace Glenn). He is survived by his wife Judy and daughter Katherine Day Barrington (Jim Rice) of Bath, younger brother David Stanley Barrington (Catherine Paris) of Jericho, VT, first cousin Nancy Briggs Noddin (Richard) of Alna, ME, and many nieces and nephews. He lived a good life and opted out at the ripe old age of 90 years; we will dearly miss him. Many heartfelt thanks to the caretakers of Meaghan Walker’s Tailored Care, Hill House of Bath, and CHANS who helped out so much in Tom’s last year.

Memorial gifts in Tom’s memory may be made to KELT, MMM, or the City of Bath Forestry Committee Trust Fund. A summer memorial service is planned.

Condolences may be made online at WWW.DaigleFuneralHome.com