He was born in Barlow, Kentucky, a town founded by his father at the turn of the century.   The house where he was born is now a public museum.  He went to Barlow High School, then attended Murray State University for a year before going to the University of Virginia, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1930. He then began a lifelong career in private education with a teaching job at the McKenzie School in NY.

He moved to Washington to teach at St. Albans School for Boys in 1931.   While there, he & Stanley B. Sofield founded Camp Kinloch for Boys on Lake Champlain in Vermont.

In 1944,  Mr. Barlow moved to  the  New Canaan Country Day School in Connecticut, but he returned to  Washington after two years to become assistant headmaster of the Longfellow School for Boys in Bethesda.  In 1960, he became headmaster of McLean School for Boys in Washington.   He retired in 1965, only to be called back to act as interim headmaster at the Glenelg School, where he remained a board member for 25 years.

Mr. Barlow was an active member of the Reciprocity Club of Bethesda and the Authors Club of Washington.

He is survived by his wife, Lee Maddox Barlow of Chevy Chase; two sons, Thomas Barlow, III of Paducah, Kentucky, and Will Barlow of Denver; Colorado, a daughter, Henrietta Fridholm of Grosse Pointe, Michigan; three grandchildren; five step grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. March 7 in the little sanctuary at St. Albans.