Obituary of Robert Russell Barney

As a boy, he dreamed of becoming an artist. But he spent most of his life pouring his energy and attention, not into paint but people. As a teenager, there were more years of school to finish, but he cut short his education to begin supporting his family – eventually building one of the most successful small businesses in Camden County. And as a man, he could have easily been forgiven for stashing away what he’d worked so hard to earn, but he shared all -- money, time, jokes, smiles. Such was the life of Robert Russell Barney. For Mr. Barney, who departed this earthly life Feb. 16 after a long illness, life was built around three central pillars: hard work, love of family and unrelenting generosity. The hard work began early. One of five children born to Edgar and Victoria Barney at what is now Cooper University Hospital in Camden, Mr. Barney was raised in Voorhees Township and attended the Kresson School. Due to family illness and other obligations, Mr. Barney left school at a young age to work and provide support to his parents and siblings. After briefly returning to school, his dreams of pursuing a career as a commercial artist were deferred when he joined the Army, serving time in Germany before earning an honorable discharge. In Camden, Mr. Barney met the late Sylvia Mae Harris. They later married and became the proud parents of two children, Dr. Linda Barney-St. Martin and Kevin Phillip Barney. Mr. Barney and his bride were able to celebrate 48 years of marriage together. She preceded him in death in 2002. Shortly after his military service ended, Mr. Barney began laying the groundwork for the business that would become Barney’s Waste Removal. “Never let pride get in the way of a paycheck,” he was fond of telling younger people in later life – and it was advice that he earned the right to give through his own diligence and hard work. Mr. Barney spent many a long day stripped to the waist, soaked in his own sweat laying brick and mortar to build waste tanks at the bottom of a 10-foot pit. Though the work was messy, Mr. Barney’s dedication to it was unflagging. And he also managed to keep his sense of humor: he was fond of proudly telling anyone who’d listen that his company was “No. 1 in the No. 2 business.” Work was his passion but his family was his joy. For years afterward, Mr. Barney enjoyed recounting the story of how Linda won the Miss Black America beauty pageant as a college student. And how Kevin and his wife, Kellie, had produced a beautiful family of their own in Stacey and Kevin Jr. He took special pride in mentoring his nieces, nephews and grandchildren, offering anecdotes, words of wisdom, $20 dollar bills and car rides to school and ballet lessons. And his lessons have taken hold with the next generation of the family: Victoria, his oldest granddaughter whom he encouraged to write poetry as a child, is now a reporter at The Washington Post. Carla, with whom he frequently stressed the value and importance of family, is now the mother of twin, 3-year-old girls, Skylar and Avery. Mr. Barney’s generosity extended well beyond his own family. Indeed, many readers of these words have benefitted from the decades of kindness that he has bestowed on friends and neighbors. He contributed much to the life and services of Voorhees Township – far too much to mention here. Among one of his greatest “gifts” was providing a fence around the graveyard of his childhood church, Mt. Zion AME in Voorhees. In his later years, he attended an adult care facility in Cherry Hill, where he enjoyed pool, music and poetry, people and conversation. He was a fixture at local shops and restaurants where he would regale listeners with stories of Camden County as it was, share jokes or offer a performance of a favorite poem. Despite his advancing years, his sense of humor remained sturdy. “Does my hair look OK?” he’d ask with a smile when posing for photos (nevermind that time has taken all but a thin grey ribbon of stubble around his head). And, upon spotting a wedding ring on a woman’s finger, he’d pose a playful and flirtatious brain teaser: “Is your husband married?” Later as his health began to fail, he moved to Aristicare, where he was blessed with almost daily visits from cousins Ursula, Larry and a very, very close family friend, Linda White. Their attention to Mr. Barney’s care was total and unconditional. On Monday morning, February 16, 2015 in Kennedy Hospital in Stratford, Mr. Barney went to join his beloved Sylvia. He leaves, to cherish his memories, Dr. Linda Barney-St. Martin and Kevin Phillip Barney, both of Voorhees, N.J.; a son-in-law, Dr. Carlisle St. Martin; a daughter-in-law, Kellie Stutzenberg-Barney; four grandchildren, Victoria St. Martin of Rockville, Md.; Carla St. Martin-Jackson and her husband, Tyshnn, of Edison, N.J.; Kevin Phillip Barney Jr. and Stacy Barney; two great-grandchildren, Skylar and Avery Jackson of Edison, N.J.; one Godchild, Dawn White of Newark, Del.; and with a host of nieces, nephews other relatives and friends.