Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Richard Iddings BARSTOW
Richard I. Barstow, Physician, 93, who for 50 years practiced medicine in Norfolk, died peacefully Tuesday (October 19, 1999) in Middlebury, VT, surrounded by his family. He was born September 8, 1906 in Methuen, MA, the son of Beulah L. and Frederic L. Barstow. A graduate of Union College, where he was active in football, lacrosse, publications, and dramatics, he went on to earn his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA. He served as resident physician at the Jefferson Hospital for 27 months and had additional training at the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, NY, before opening his office on the Village Green in Norfolk in August, 1936. Dr. Barstow is best known and remembered for his unwavering,energetic devotion to his patients and for the compassion, ability, and gentility with which he practiced medicine. He continued to make house calls on his patients as necessary until his retirement in 1986. He valued house calls because they allowed hispatients to be treated in familiar surroundings, but also because he believed that learning about the way they lived contributed substantially to his ability to cure them. He also valued the opportunity to treat more than one generation of a family. While he attended medical seminars annually and kept up with scores of medical journals, he also championed a spirit of healing that reached back to a time when the human touch was one of the few tools physicians possessed. He received wider recognitionfor these qualities when, on August 12, 1976, Norfolk and surrounding communities honored his 40 years in practice by declaring ''Dr. Barstow Day.'' Hundreds of his patients, friends, and relatives greeted him on the Village Green for speeches and a reception. The event was covered by local television stations and local and state newspapers. His retirement in August 1986 was covered by the New York Times. Barstow gave to his community in other ways beyond his extraordinarily full medical practice.He was Chairman of the Norfolk Committee for a regional high school, which eventually brought about the building of Northwestern Regional School No. 7. He also served as chairman of the Norfolk School Board. He was a president of the Litchfield County Medical Association and a delegate from his county to the State Medical Society. He served two terms as Chief of Staff of the Winsted Memorial Hospital and was a member of the attending staff for over 40 years. With Dr. Norman Smith, he was one of the first two physicians on the hospital's board of directors. A lover of music and art, he was for over 20 years a Trustee of the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, which sponsors the Yale summer schools of music and art in Norfolk. He served as president of the Litchfield County Choral Union, in which he sang for decades; and was a member of the Litchfield County University Club. For many years he acted as moderator of Norfolk town meetings, was chairman of Norfolk's Republican Town Committee, served as school physician and health officer, and was a member of the historic district commission. A charter member of the Norfolk Curling Club, he traveled widely in United States and Canada to attend curling bonspiels. His wife of 53 years, Lorraine Hoover Barstow, predeceased him in January 1998. They were married in Norfolk June 4, 1945, and raised their five children at their home on Litchfield Road. In the mid-1980s he and his wife moved to a retirement community in Wallingford, where they resided until moving to Vermont in 1997 to be nearer several of their children. Dr. Barstow is survived by his sister, Betty Parker of Port Orford, OR; five children, Richard, Peter, Revell Allen, Noel, and John; eight grandchildren, Lori, Tyler, Augusta, Allison, Charles, Angus, William, and Julia; and a great-granddaughter
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