Barbagallo, Ronald Peter

Devoted teacher, outdoors enthusiast and world traveler

Ronald Peter Barbagallo of Boston died on August 13, 2024 at age 89 after a short illness.  Born in Somerville to parents who both emigrated at a young age from Sicily, Ron was the next-to-last of nine siblings, barely escaping being named Octavio.  He was the last of the nine to survive.  Growing up in a loving family he lost both his parents before graduating from Boston University.   He served in the US Navy from 1957 to 1959 on a destroyer in the Pacific.  After teaching one year in the Boston school system he transferred to Bedford, MA where he taught for 8 years and was the principal for 21 years at the Davis, Center and Lane Schools. He retired in 1994. He earned a masters degree from what is now Lesley University.   During summer vacations he taught swimming at a variety of places helping handicapped or less privileged kids, including the Perkins School in Watertown and Horizons for Youth in Sharon.

After many years in the family house in Somerville Ron moved to the Back Bay of Boston, living in only two houses his entire life.  He was an avid skier, participating in the creation of the Makusue Ski & Sports Club in North Conway, NH, and spending vacations skiing in the West and in Europe with friends.  He and his brothers bought a farmhouse and over 100 acres of woods in Grafton, NH, spending countless hours developing walking and cross-country skiing trails and hosting annual family reunions.   Retiring in 1995 he met his partner of nearly 28 years, William Clendaniel, through their love of skiing and hiking.  Bill was president of Mount Auburn Cemetery, and the two of them traveled widely to attend cemetery, cremation, historic sites or botanical gardens conferences as well as on their own.  During Bill's three-month sabbatical in 2000 they explored cemeteries and other historic sites in England, France and Italy. Bill retired in 2008, and they continued their travels going to 24 countries,

including Argentina, Croatia, India, New Zealand, Turkey, Greece, and Morocco.  Bill told Ron then that they didn't have to visit cemeteries anymore.  They enjoyed many gay ski weeks in Stowe, VT and yearly summer visits to Provincetown and winter visits to Deerfield Beach, Florida.  Each summer they spent three months at Bill's family summer house in Sorrento, ME where they sailed and motorboated.  They also enjoyed biking on the Cape or Acadia National Park and hiking at Ron's NH place as well as attending concerts of the Boston Symphony in Boston or Tanglewood.  They both were members of the Athenaeum, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Friends of the Public Garden, the Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery, The Trustees of Reservations, and the Center for Coastal Studies and subscribers of the Handel & Haydn Society.

Wherever he went, lunching with old friends, greeting strangers while walking on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, enjoying new friends from Beacon Hill Village, of which he was a member for many years, or interacting with his nurses in the hospital at the end of his life, Ron was a warm, gregarious, caring man, ready with a joke or a story, always affable and ready for a new experience, creating of legion of friends from all walks of life.  He will be greatly missed by all of them and his family.  He is survived by Bill Clendaniel, two sisters-in-law, and many nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews, and great-great nieces and nephews.

"A celebration of Ron's life will be held at Bigelow Chapel, Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge, MA at 2 pm on Friday, September 20, 2024.  Please let Bill know if you plan on attending - bclend@gmail.com.  Please bring your own stories of Ron.  The celebration will be live streamed at https://vimeo.com/event/4518993/bc613d7d1e

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Ron's memory may be made to the Friends of the Public Garden, the Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery, or The Trustees of Reservations."