February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Barker, a native of Woodside, Queens, died of heart failure in Manhattan’s Lennox Hill Hospital on Sunday, Oct. 3. He had been suffering in recent months from pulmonary fibrosis, a disease of the lungs.
Barker served as executive secretary and also as a director of the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Celebration Committee and, as such, was viewed as both a hero by some and a bete noir by others involved in the long-running debate over the parade’s composition and future direction.
As executive secretary, Barker performed many of the behind-the-scenes tasks necessary to ensure the success of the annual march up Fifth Avenue.
But during the 1990s in particular, he frequently stepped into the limelight as a spokesman for the parade committee as it battled to hold back the challenges of Irish gay groups seeking to march in the event under their own banners.
As well as dealing with what he and the committee viewed as attacks on the parade from without, Barker also had to face down criticism and direct challenges from within.
In 2001, Barker resisted and successfully turned back an attempt to force his resignation from the parade’s controlling corporation.
The call for Barker’s resignation came from the then president of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Corporation, William J. Flynn, and was in the twin context of disputed parade finances and a row between parade leaders and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, one that would ultimately lead to the sundering of formal ties between the AOH National Board and the parade leadership.
As it turned out, however, it was Flynn who resigned from his post — after threatening to do so if Barker did not — while Barker remained in his controlling position within the parade’s operational structure.
The 2001 brouhaha was to be the last in a series of public spats involving the parade during Barker’s tenure.
In more recent years, together with parade chairman John Dunleavy, Barker was able to preside over a less controversial annual march, one that enhanced its already considerable length while attracting growing corporate sponsorship and expanded TV coverage.
The relative tranquility allowed Barker to spend time with his grown children and grandchildren in Chicago even as his health deteriorated.
“Jim is certainly going to be missed. He did a fantastic job running the parade,” Tommy Gleason, the 2004 parade grand marshal and long time legal representative of the parade committee, said.
“We used to argue a lot, but he was a good guy. He knew how to get people involved in the parade. I spoke with Jim just a couple of weeks ago and he was still talking about making improvements in the parade.”
Dennis Kelleher, who will succeed Gleason as the 2005 grand marshal, said that Barker’s active interest in the parade and its future did not falter even as he neared death.
“Jim was working the parade up to the night before he died. He was still working the details,” Kelleher said.
Kelleher described Barker as a man of extremely strong convictions, one who was steadfast in his beliefs and did not waiver or vacillate under pressure.
Barker, along with John Dunleavy, he said, were responsible for “the great parade we have today.”
Barker’s Irish family ties were both northern and southern. His late wife, Eileen, was a native of Rathmore, Co. Kerry. Both his parents were from County Monaghan.
A graduate of Cardinal Farley Military Academy and Villanova University, Barker was also the recipient of an honorary law degree from Siena College in upstate New York and a member of the order of the Knights of St. Gregory.
Barker was the president of J.B. Marketing Inc., a Queens-based marketing and sales promotion company.
In addition to his prominent role in the parade, Barker was a member of a number of organizations, including the AOH, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, the American Irish Historical Society, and the American Catholic Committee.
Those surviving Barker include his daughters, Elizabeth and Eileen, his son, James, and grandchildren Richard, Kelly and Meghan.
His remains will repose at Fox Funeral Home, 98-07 Ascan Ave., Forest Hills, Queens, on Wednesday and Thursday from 2-5 and 7-9 p.m. A funeral Mass is scheduled for St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan on Friday morning at 10. Interment is at Calvary Cemetery in Woodside, Queens.