Shrewsbury – Barrie Mitchell Burton, 81, of Shrewsbury, passed peacefully at the Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center, Westborough on Sunday, February 12th, 2023.
Born in Worcester, Barrie was the fourth of five children born to Frank Burton and Marion (Giddings) Burton. He grew up in Worcester and attended North High and Classical High School in Worcester before moving to West Hartford, CT, and graduating from Conard High School in 1960.
Barrie attended the University of Connecticut, earning a BFA in Theater History in 1965. Following graduation, Barrie attended Tulane University Graduate School in New Orleans, furthering his theater studies before choosing to enlist in the Army during the Vietnam Conflict.
Barrie married his college girlfriend, Margaret “Peg” Reddy, in 1966 in Bristol, CT, before shipping out for Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, GA, and completing his basic and AIT training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, where his eldest daughter Suzanne was born, before he left for Vietnam.
Barrie served as a Second Lieutenant and his Army platoon’s historian in Saigon and was shipped home just before the Tet Offensive due to a medical condition. He completed his enlistment training new recruits at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
After his Army discharge, Barrie and Peg moved to Shrewsbury, where he began working for the Paul Revere Life Insurance Company as a Systems Analyst and Systems Consultant for 30 years. After the company was sold, Barrie went on to use his decades of Fortran and COBOL programming experience as a consultant working to prepare several organizations, including New England Power, to withstand the challenges of Y2K.
Barrie was an avid long-distance runner who competed in many road races and marathons across the Northeast. Barrie was a classical music enthusiast and enjoyed live concerts at Tanglewood and the Hanover theater in Worcester. He loved visiting his parents in their retirement in Yarmouth Port on Cape Cod and vacationing in Eastham, where he spent summer vacations as a child.
Barrie is predeceased by his parents, Frank Burton and Marion (Giddings) Burton, his brothers David, Steve, and his sister Joanne. He is survived by his youngest brother Peter, his wife Margaret of 56 years, and his two daughters – Suzanne Burton Kirdahy and her husband Neil, grandsons Cameron Kirdahy and Andrew Kirdahy of Marshfield, MA, and his daughter Jennifer “Llyne” Burton Foy and her husband Jack of Seattle, Washington.
In keeping with Barrie’s wishes, interment will take place at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, MA.
A celebration of life will be held at a later date.
Instead of flowers, the family requests that those who wish to honor his life make donations in his name to the Friends of Cape Cod National Seashore www.fccns.org or the Alzheimer’s Foundation www.alzdfn.org.
The Chiampa Funeral Home of Shrewsbury assisted with arrangements.
