Timothy Lee Quinlan

September 19, 2021

Barre-Timothy Lee Quinlan, age 76, of Barre, Vermont, passed away on September 19, 2021. He grew up residing mainly in North Reading Massachusetts with his parents, Jean Homewood (Baker) Quinlan and Leo Francis Quinlan. Tim was an electronics whiz-kid as well as an artist and creator, moving from medium to medium and interest to interest throughout his life, ever curious to learn and try new things. As a young adult, Tim expressed his abiding concern for social justice by joining the early Civil Rights Movement where he worked with the SCLC for several years on voter registration in the South, was shot at, jailed in Birmingham, and provided tech support for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., most notably for the march from Selma to Montgomery. Tim loved traveling the world whenever he got the chance, and was an avid fossil collector. He lived in the greater Boston area most of his life, trying his hand at any number of entrepreneurial efforts, from starting a boutique in Reading, MA, to establishing and managing an art gallery in Provincetown, MA, to starting Mad Hatter Software, a software startup company in 1978.  Tim finally found a way to express his wide-ranging interests by working for twenty-five years as an exhibit designer at the Boston Museum of Science, where some of his work is still in use today. After he retired to Vermont, Tim enjoyed hiking the trails around Graniteville and elsewhere and remained in touch with delighted friends and relatives by posting his digital art to Facebook every day. Tim was the eldest of a troupe of siblings: Steve (deceased), Joyce, Linda, Nancy, Robin, David, and Terey, Tim is survived by two sons, Sean (spouse Kathryn), Ian (spouse Billie Jo), his ex-wife Linda (partner Anne), three grandchildren, Ashley Hunt, and Connor, and Liam Quinlan, his living siblings, a small horde of nieces and nephews, and an ever growing next generation. The news of each addition brought him great joy. Tim impacted many lives, and will be missed greatly by all who loved him or called him friend. He adventures on now to a well-deserved rest. There will be no calling hours or service. Family owned and operated, Pruneau-Polli Funeral Home of 58 Summer Street in Barre assisted the family.