Tom Barnard has died. At 82, he missed his goal of beating his dad's lifespan by just about two months. This is notable for its incongruity. In his 82 years, there was almost nothing in his life he didn't make happen through sheer stubbornness and force of will.

Tommy was legally blind from childhood. He had vision loss from early infection, nerve damage (hit by a car), and life-long macular degeneration: a punishing pile-on. From one eye he saw only light and dark. From the other he had partial visibility (he described it as looking through a lens heavily smeared with tar). Even through thick glasses, the bits he could see were blurred to worse than 20/200.

A teacher once visited his house and offered to arrange large-print books for school. His mother, a tough German with no patience for such coddling, threw her out with warning to never again suggest her Tommy had a disability.

So he figured it out. He pretended to see. As a child he ran headlong into games and activities with no indication to his friends that he was very literally playing blind. He walked anywhere, rode his bike all over Brooklyn, commuted and traveled, every step taken with almost no evidence of what was directly ahead.

A few weeks shy of eighteen, he decided to join the Marines like his Uncle Bill. The recruiter told him there was no way with his lack of vision he could ever serve. Undeterred, he asked the Army recruiter the next desk over for his opinion. That recruiter said, "come on over!" so the Army it was. He served for over two years in the US and overseas in Korea, until his lack of vision was flagged during a physical for promotion to sergeant. After an honorable discharge, he returned home about a year before the war began in Vietnam.

He went back to school, reading with a magnifying glass, books pressed up against his one "good" eye. He "figured it out" all the way to an MBA, with no support from anything other than his own brute force and tenacity.

He took a job at the Federal Reserve, a job requiring regular air travel, and navigated through a lifelong career still "figuring it out." He pretended to see on flight after flight, in hotel after hotel, at bank site after bank site. He read the Wall Street Journal with his magnifying glass every day.

He was smart. He was a student of history, and politics. He bedeviled his bosses at the Fed because he didn't just read the regulations he was tasked with enforcing - he also read the legislation that made the regulations possible, and he had strong views about when enforcing them made sense and when it didn't. He applied this ability to learn and to think for himself to everything he did. The opinions that he had weren't borrowed from others, they were arrived at by reading up on the facts and thinking through on his own what was right.

He married twice. He had one daughter, Jenny, who he loved very much. He made many friends, read many books, traveled and socialized and lived a full and happy life.

He married Mary Ann after years and years of loving her in 1997. They were an excellent pair - attractive, gregarious, social, smart, open to fun. They both worked in downtown Manhattan together, commuted together, went to Peggy O'Neill's together, volunteered at the Bayfort Benevolent Association together, went to to Vegas, Saratoga, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Ireland, Bermuda, Croatia - all over together. He was hers and she was his. They were inseparable, made for each other, and a quintessential love story.

Tom could talk to anybody. He could engage with a stranger at the drop of a hat, whether it was on a bar stool or a bus ride. He could find a common thread or interest and spin a full conversation out of the air. He was a good companion; he was a great guy.

He was happy when Jenny married Daniel, and made sure his son-in-law knew how much he loved and respected him. Tom once confided in Danny that his daughter could not have done any better - though he suspected Danny could have! He loved his grandsons Nate and Billy and Mary Ann's niece Dianna, late nephew Andreas and grand-niece Camellia. He was pleased with the lovely young woman she was growing to be.

He was especially close with Billy, and loved to talk with him at every opportunity. Billy loved listening to his stories of his time in the army, his exploits while traveling, his off-color jokes, his dry humor, his anecdotes and opinions and sharp and unambiguous commentary. Billy loved every bit of his Pop, and Pop felt the same. He loved Billy's character, charisma and his clear affection for him. Pop said often that Billy was "one of us," that he was "the cream of the crop," that could not have imagined a better grandson. They were a perfect duo.

Without Mary Ann, Tom would have been lost. She took care of him and loved him unreservedly, even when he made it difficult. She was his rock. She made his life possible. He enjoyed his retirement and their activities, friends and travel, their cats and their comfortable home and even their ailments, because of Mary Ann, and their relationship and bond. She made everything possible. He was lucky to have found her.

Tommy was loved by his family. He leaves behind Mary Ann, Jenny, Danny, Billy, Nate, Dianna, Camellia, Susan, Debbie, Alison, Andrew, Fiona, Ryan, Caitlin, Nancy, Ray, Melissa, Josh, Misha, Maya, Amanda, Clay and Luke.


Please note: flowers are restricted at Calverton. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Tom's name to:

Support Committee for Calverton National Cemetery: https://calvertonsupport.com

The Seeing Eye: https://seeingeye.org

Sean Casey Animal Rescue: https://www.nyanimalrescue.org


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Visitation Hours
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
3 PM - 7 PM

Clavin Funeral Home
7722 4th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11209
Complimentary Valet Parking Available

Prayer Service
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
6 PM

Clavin Funeral Home
7722 4th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11209

Departing Funeral Home
Thursday, January 29, 2026
10 AM

Military Honors and Burial Ceremony
Thursday, January 29, 2026
12 PM

Calverton National Cemetery
210 Princeton Boulevard
Calverton, NY 11933