F. Barrie Freeman

WEST BATH – F. Barrie Freeman, 72, passed away on Feb. 26, 2026, at Midcoast Hospital. He had Parkinson’s disease, which stole his mobility but left his sense of humor intact.

Barrie was born on Jan. 27, 1954, in Ithaca, NY, to Frederic B. Freeman and Mary Tibbetts Freeman. Barrie graduated from Alfred University, where he met his wife, Lois. After college, Barrie and Lois moved to Bethel, Maine, where they were married in 1979. In 1984, they moved to West Bath, where their daughter Mary was born.

Barrie was an antiques and rare books dealer. He channeled his lifelong fascination with American history into buying and selling books, antiques, art, maps, and ephemera. Barrie got his start in the business as a teenager, when he spent summers in Bethel with his grandmother, Pearl Ashby Tibbetts, an amateur “picker.” He built his business and his expertise over decades, moving comfortably between the uppermost echelons of the collecting world and picking the trash. Even in his “retirement” years, Barrie was a weekly fixture at the Fort Andross Flea Market in Brunswick, still making “scores” and dispensing wisdom.

Barrie was most at home in the woods. He was an Eagle Scout, and he carried his passion for the outdoors through adulthood. Many who knew him would recall that he and his wife slept in a tent during summers at their home in West Bath. He tended the land of Quaker Point Farm for 40 years, cutting firewood, maintaining trails, watching over the wildlife, and battling the woodchucks that ravaged his wife’s garden.

Anyone who Barrie encountered was struck by his wild imagination and ribald sense of humor. He was a writer, an artist, and a craftsman, who boasted of never cutting his hair.

Barrie is survived by wife Lois Byrne Freeman of West Bath; daughter Mary Tibbetts Freeman and son-in-law James R. Finley, both of Bangor.

At Barrie’s request, there will be no service.

The family extends special thanks to the wonderful palliative care team and nurses at Midcoast Hospital.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to:

the Bethel Historical Society: https://bethelhistorical.org/donations/