Thomas William Barnes Jr.

Thomas W. Barnes, Jr of Bluffton, SC, age 93, passed away on April 17, 2017. Tom was born March 8, 1924 in Atlanta, GA to the late Thomas and Edith (Camp) Barnes. He graduated from Bessemer (AL) High School in 1942, and served in the Army Air Corps as a pilot in the Pacific theater in WWII. After the war, he graduated from the University of Alabama in 1949 with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, and was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity. He joined the Army Corps of Engineers and went on to be an engineer and project manager working in Illinois, Ohio and, finally, Michigan. He retired from the U.S. Department of Defense in 1981. A resident of Sun City, he was also a parishioner of St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church. He was preceded in death by wife, Eleanor Hart (1982), and wife, Dolores Ash (2002). He is survived by his wife, Lillian Blasey Barnes, son Thomas W Barnes III (Susan), daughters Constance Barnes and Barbara (Julio) Turrens, step-daughter Dawn Blasey, grandchildren Michael Skinner, Sean Skinner, David Barnes, Katherine (Jesse) Schmidt and Robert Barnes, and great grandson Grady Schmidt. The funeral mass will be held on May 24 at 10:30AM in St. Andrew’s Chapel, Bluffton, SC, followed immediately by inurnment in the columbarium at St. Francis by the Sea Catholic Church, Hilton Head Island, SC. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the USO or the American Cancer Society in his name.