Dr. Benjamin Childs Barrow, 85, went to Heaven Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2013. He passed away at his home in Athens, surrounded by his beloved wife of 63 years, Emily, two of his daughters, and several other family members.
Dr. Barrow was born May 25, 1928 at Athens General Hospital. He was the son of David Frances Barrow, a math professor at the University of Georgia, and Mary Augusta Arnold Barrow. He was the grandson of David Crenshaw Barrow, chancellor of the University of Georgia and for whom Barrow County was named.
He is preceded in death by his parents; a brother, David Crenshaw Barrow, a Geography professor at UGA, and two sisters, Frances Barrow Hoge and Mary Barrow Hoge.
He is survived by his wife, Emily Aderholt Barrow; four daughters (he called each one his “favorite daughter”), Nancy Barrow Davidson (Danny) of Athens, Betty Barrow McCanless (Andy) of Canton, Emily Barrow Salley (Hayes) of Monroe, and Audrey Barrow Watson (Rob) of Griffin; eight grandchildren, Benjamin Barrow Parrott (Amber), Andrew Lee McCanless, Jr. (Suzanne), David Barrow McCanless (Shannon), Michael Joseph McCanless, Audrey Elizabeth Salley, Matthew Benjamin Salley, Emily Sarah Watson and Robert Coleman Watson, III; three step-grandchildren, Paul Davidson Jr., Jennifer Meachum, and Jessica Tatum; one great-grandchild, Jane Utah Parrott, and seven step-great grandchildren, Hannah Meachum, Raegan Tatum, Tripp Tatum, Julie Tatum, Melanie Davidson, Katie Davidson, and Kelly Davidson.
The following includes some excerpts taken from an article written by M.A. Barnes and published in the Athens Banner Herald in 2001.
“Dr. Ben Barrow is the perfect model of a family doctor, with kindly blue eyes, gentle disposition, good heart, insightful intelligence, delightful wit and an easy, warm conversational style. He was a family practitioner in Athens from 1974 until 1997 and played a major role in the lives of many people in Athens. Well-respected among his peers, he was one of the few doctors in general practice in the area for many years. During his last eight years of medical service, he contributed to a project he initiated -- Athens Industrial Medicine -- practicing occupational medicine. He said that after being in family practice and taking night calls and house calls for so many years, retirement was like going to heaven.”
He received his bachelor of science in zoology from the University of Georgia 1951 and an ROTC commission. From 1953 to 1955 he attended graduate school at UGA. He then attended the Medical College of Georgia, graduating in June 1958. He did an internship at Macon Hospital in 1958-59 and a general practice residence at Macon Hospital from 1959-60. He then practiced in Monticello, Ga for 13 years from 1960 to 1974.
“My partner and I did a little of everything -- delivered babies, tended fractures, operated on appendixes, performed hysterectomies, that kind of thing. When my partner left, I was about the only doctor in town, and I got a belly full. I wanted to come home (to Athens), and there is a fantastically good professional environment here in Athens -- better than anything I'd been exposed to -- and we were so welcomed and accepted. It was just great. We had lots of friends in Monticello -- we still do, but this was home.”
Dr. Barrow met the love of his life, Emily, when they were both summer counselors at Camp Dixie for Boys and Girls in Clayton, Ga in 1949. “She fell head over heels in love with me. I had peroxided my hair and was irresistible. I don't know if it was my hot rod Ford or the peanut butter crackers and Coca-Cola that won her over. I was 21 and she was 19. I knew right away she was the one for me. She did say meeting me made it easier to leave Shorter College and come to UGA where I was.” On their first date “we rode into Clayton in my 1934 Ford with a 1944 engine, a real hot rod. We got married August 18, 1950, in Jefferson, her hometown, at the First Baptist Church. We were both still in college.”
Dr. Barrow served in the United States Air Force between his freshman and sophomore years of college in 1946. He spent most of his time in Japan. He was called to active duty in the United States Army in 1951 and served for two years in Texas, Kentucky and Alaska. It was during this time while stationed in Alaska that his first daughter, Nancy, was born in Jefferson, Ga.
Dr. Barrow was Athens’ youngest licensed pilot at the age of 17. He was most proud, however, of his sailing abilities. “I bought a used sailboat -- a 25-foot Helms Sloop and raced it on Lake Hartwell in 1980 with a crew of Dr. Charles Thomas and my brother, Col. Dave Barrow. We won the prestigious Lite Carolina Regatta, sponsored by Miller Lite Brewing Company. We won the famed Palmetto Plaque. It was the last year they had it -- the only one in fact, and there were 82 yachts in that race. We won it on my birthday!”
Dr. Barrow is remembered by many friends and patients for his beautiful singing voice. He was known for singing while walking down the hall in his private practice in Monticello and Athens. Many patients have said “how could you feel too bad, even though you were sick, when you heard your doctor singing in such a beautiful voice.” His family was blessed to sing with him in church choirs and on many other occasions. They may not have felt this way when awakened early mornings on a school day in Monticello by his singing over the intercom system that he had installed in each of the children’s bedrooms, but they felt blessed nonetheless. He served as choir director at the Monticello Presbyterian Church and sang in the choir at the Athens First Presbyterian Church, Athens Choral Society and the Classic Singers.
He also enjoyed hunting, gentleman farming and woodworking. “I have a lot of fun with my woodworking. I make some really beautiful bowls.”
Dr. Barrow was raised in the Episcopalian Church and later, he and his wife Emily, a Southern Baptist, compromised and raised their four girls in the Presbyterian Church. “I'm a Christian, and if I didn't have that to fall back on, I sure wouldn't have much. I feel sorry for people who don't know it. They've got it and don't know it. When I was standing beside a bed with some lady bleeding to death or a kid convulsing and ready to die, if I couldn't pray and didn't know I had some back up, it would have been awful.” Dr. Barrow was an elder in the First Presbyterian Church in Athens where his family were members.
His affiliations included the Phi Rho Sigma Medical Fraternity, Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, Fellow American Academy of Family Practice, 1987; American Medical Association, Medical Association of Georgia, AAFP, Crawford W. Long Medical Society. He served as honorary staff at St. Mary's Hospital of Athens and Athens Regional Medical Center and former president of the medical staff at both hospitals. While in Monticello, he served as Chairman of the Jasper Memorial Hospital Medical Staff and Jasper County Board of Health. He was the county physician for Jasper County and the clinician in the Health Department pre-natal, well baby and family planning clinics. In 2001 he was honored in Athens for his 20 years of community service by the American Heart Association.
Memorial services for Dr. Barrow will be held Saturday, December 28 at 2:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in Athens. The family will hold a visitation at Bernstein’s Funeral Home on Atlanta Highway on Friday December 27 from 5-7 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the music ministry at the First Presbyterian Church in Athens in memory of Dr. Ben Barrow.
Online condolences may be made at www.bernsteinfuneralhome.com
Bernstein funeral Home and Cremation Service are in charge of arrangements.
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