Barbara A. Tuthill passed away May 15, 2020 from complications of Covid-19. She was born in Plains, Pennsylvania on July 23, 1930 to Elizabeth (Wall) Tuthill and Robert Eldridge Tuthill. In 1941 her family moved to Newton, Massachusetts. After high school she attended Boston University earning a BA in English Literature. Furthering her education at Simmons College she received a Master’s in Library Science, specializing in children’s literature. Her career began with two years at the Boston Public Library followed by a year as school librarian in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Barbara then moved to San Diego, California, where her career spanned thirty-one years in the San Diego Public library system. Her first assignment there was as children’s librarian in the La Jolla branch library. She advanced up through the ranks, ultimately becoming a supervisory librarian in the Central Library. At time of her retirement in 1991, she was supervisor of the branch libraries in Northern San Diego and was responsible for a large book purchasing budget.
Barbara loved art and music attending many symphony and chamber concerts with her friends in California. She was a docent at the San Diego Museum of Art as well as at the Mingei Art Museum in Balboa park where she helped catalogue the collection. Her Intellectual curiosity led her to travel widely.
To be near her family she moved to Amherst, Massachusetts in 2008, and resided at her Applewood apartment where she gained many new friends. With increasing health issues she moved to the Center for Extended Care in Amherst in September 2019.
She will be missed by her family, brother Robert and wife Jacqueline, sister Nancy Rott and husband Don plus her two nieces, two nephews, four great nieces, four great nephews and friends.
A memorial service may be held in the future. Memorial gifts can be made on-line to the Covid-19 Relief Fund of United Way or to the Cooley-Dickinson hospital.