Robert Barney, 86; had owned N.J. firm

Robert R. Barney, 86, a longtime resident of Voorhees who was the former owner of Barney's Waste Removal there, died of complications from dementia on Monday, Feb. 16, at Kennedy University Hospital in Stratford.

He had resided at AristaCare in Cherry Hill for the last year and a half.

A 1997 Inquirer article about Mr. Barney described him as "the modern-day patriarch of the township's oldest African American family and one of its first families."

The Barney family cherished being out in the country, he said, before Voorhees became a bustling suburb in the last half of the 20th century.

"We didn't have racial problems, because we were country folks - well, at least, they weren't as visible," Mr. Barney told the interviewer.

"We never talked about black and white back then, but you could tell when people had parties and you might not be invited, accidentally."

But being out there had its advantages.

"Living in the country, you see what life is about and you learn to appreciate it more," he said. "I'm used to all my neighbors, white or black, saying hello. You don't realize how important that is until you don't hear it much anymore."

Born in Camden, Mr. Barney grew up in Voorhees and attended the township's Kresson Elementary School, but left his education after eighth grade to help support his family.

Granddaughter Victoria St. Martin, a Washington Post reporter, said in a written tribute that his life "was built around three central pillars: hard work, love of family, and unrelenting generosity."

After serving as a Army liaison with the USO from 1951 to 1953, for a time in West Germany, he returned to Voorhees to run from his garage what would become Barney's Waste Removal.

The firm made and serviced septic systems, among other efforts.

"Mr. Barney spent many a long day stripped to the waist, soaked in his own sweat, laying brick and mortar to build waste tanks at the bottom of a 10-foot pit," St. Martin said.

" 'Never let pride get in the way of a paycheck,' he was fond of telling younger people in later life - and it was advice that he earned the right to give through his own diligence and hard work," she said.

Mr. Barney's daughter, Linda Barney-St. Martin, said, "Daddy was very people-friendly. He had an infectious personality."

And, she recalled, "he was famous for his stories. He would talk about when he was a child, growing up in this neighborhood."

In the early 2000s, Mr. Barney built a fence around the graveyard of his childhood church, Mount Zion A.M.E. in Voorhees.

Besides his daughter and granddaughter, Mr. Barney is survived by son Kevin, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. His wife, Sylvia, died in 2002.

Services took place Friday, Feb. 20.

Donations may be sent to Vitas Hospice, 18 E. Laurel Rd., Stratford, N.J. 08084.

Condolences may be offered to the family at http://covingtonfuneralhomes.com.