CAMDEN – Barbara “Bobby” Hale Brainerd, 87, passed away Oct. 20, 2004, in Camden. She was born April 4, 1917, in Newton, Mass. She graduated from Wellesley and Radcliff Colleges with majors in zoology and biology. She studied animal behavior as a doctoral student at the University of Chicago, and she was a keen observer of wildlife her entire life. She grew up in Wellesley, Mass., spending summers since childhood at her beloved Red Point on Cape Rosier in Brooksville. She resided in Springfield, Mass. for nearly 40 years, where she raised her family. Barbara volunteered with the American Friends Service Committee, the Friendly Visitors Program of the Springfield Council of Churches, and for Springfield area hospitals and nursing homes as an occupational therapist. She retired to Brooksville with her husband John, a professor at Springfield College, in 1980. Barbara served as librarian of the Brooksville Free Public Library, taking a special interest in cataloging and preserving the Walter Snow collection of local historical documents. In 1991, she and her husband moved to the Kendal Retirement Community in Hanover, N.H., where she was instrumental in establishing their library, and served as their librarian for many years. In 2001, she moved to The Courtyard of The Anderson Inn at Quarry Hill, in Camden to be near her family. During her life with John, they traveled to all 50 states and many foreign countries, and collaborated in publishing four books on ecology, conservation, and environmental design, with Barbara providing the photographic illustrations. Barbara was predeceased by her husband of 53 years, John Whiting Brainerd; and by her sister, Helen Loomis. She leaves her children, Roger and Laura Brainerd of Union, Allen and Ann Brainerd of Amherst, Mass., and Jill (Brainerd) and Robert Root of Albuquerque, N.M. She also leaves her seven nieces and nephews and seven grandchildren, who live from coast to coast. A Memorial Remembrance will be held at Red Point in Brooksville next spring, and memorial contributions may be made to the Brooksville Free Public Library, P.O. Box 38, Brooksville, ME 04617.
BARBARA ‘BOBBY’ HALE BRAINERD
