TUNBRIDGE — In the weeks leading up to the annual Tunbridge World’s Fair, Kevin Barnaby, who’d worked for 11 years as part of the maintenance crew, seemed to be everywhere at once, mowing grass, making repairs to the more than 30 buildings on site, plugging leaks, mending fences, and moving earth and hay.
If the fairgrounds lacked a particular piece of equipment, he brought his own to do the job. If something needed to be done, he did it. And if he couldn’t do it, he knew whom to call.
Barnaby, a lifelong Tunbridgian, died on Oct. 8, 2019, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center after a brief, unexpected illness. He was 58 and is survived by a son, two daughters, a stepdaughter, a brother, several aunts, uncles and cousins, and 12 grandchildren.
Barnaby falls into the category of the person in town who performs so many functions and makes so many contributions, often unnoticed, that you don’t realize how much work was done and how many contributions were made until there’s a void where the person used to be.
“He was one of the hardest working people I have ever known,” said his youngest daughter, Katie Barnaby.
Barnaby “always had something going on,” said Kathy Galluzzo, a friend of Barnaby’s for many years, whether it was lawn mowing, snow plowing and shoveling for neighbors or for the library or post office; doing odd jobs and favors for townspeople; or serving a stint as the town constable.
She and her husband regularly spent time with Barnaby, playing cards, watching TV or fishing. Barnaby had a wisecracking, good-natured humor, she said, and they liked to joke around. Their children knew and liked him so well they called him Uncle Kevin.
When big events such as a dog show or the Jenny Brook Bluegrass Festival set up at the fairgrounds, Barnaby, a burly man with a mustache who favored baseball caps, stayed in a camper up by the office near the entrance to keep an eye on things.
“People would knock on his door at 4 a.m. with a problem and he’d go down and fix it,” said Margaret Rogers, who worked for a number of years alongside Barnaby on the maintenance crew.
Whenever the First Branch of the White River flooded the fairgrounds, Barnaby was there to check the damage, and then to help repair it.
On summer days, despite often blazing heat, he presided over the grounds from atop a John Deere tractor, which probably logged dozens of miles a day going back and forth over the 26 acres.
“He could have lived (on it),” said Alan Howe, one of the fair’s directors.
“He was the master of the fairgrounds,” Rogers said.
The Galluzzos, and other volunteers, also worked with Barnaby on his other great passion, the Tunbridge Recreation Field. The bulk of the Recreation Field property was given to the town in 1980 by Barnaby’s grandparents, according to the Town Lister’s office.
Barnaby, the Galluzzos and other townspeople raised money and secured grants to repair the grounds, build a playground, get a new score clock and upgrade the field.
“He loved the field and he was so proud of how much it had improved,” Galluzzo said.
Even when they disagreed over issues related to the recreation area, they’d hash it out with no ill will or recriminations, she added.
To say that Barnaby loved softball would probably be an understatement. He played in adult softball leagues, coached Tunbridge kids, including his children and grandchildren, and also served as an umpire, said Galluzzo and Katie Barnaby.
Barnaby was equally celebrated for his role as cook at the Recreation Field’s snack shack during softball tournaments, dishing up generous hamburgers made to order and the fried potatoes for which he was famous.
“If you asked for a hot breakfast sandwich, he made ones that had eggs and potatoes and bacon and sausage,” Rogers said.
He was also “an amazing grandfather,” said Katie Barnaby, and made sure to attend his grandchildren’s school concerts, sporting events and Scout meetings. “He was so active in their lives.”
In his job at the fairgrounds, the vendors and exhibitors liked and trusted him, Howe said. “Anything they really wanted, we were there,” Rogers said.
“He touched a lot of people here in Tunbridge. … He walked proud,” Rogers said.
Barnaby loved his hometown deeply, Galluzzo said.
Barnaby’s assumption was that if someone needed help, then you would help — with no strings attached.
“One hand washes the other,” she said. “There was no expectation. We’re friends and this is what we do for each other.”
Nicola Smith can be reached at mail@nicolasmith.org.