25 Facts About Wallace Barnes

Wallace Barnes was the chairman and chief executive officer of Barnes Group, Inc.

Wallace Barnes practiced law and served on numerous public and private company boards.

Wallace Barnes was a delegate to eight national GOP conventions.

Wallace Barnes was born in Bristol, Connecticut, to Lillian and Harry Clarke Wallace Barnes as one of four children.

Wallace Barnes was named after his grandfather Wallace Barnes, the founder of the Barnes Group in 1857, and is a direct descendant of Ebenezer Barnes, who became the first permanent settler of Bristol in 1728.

Wallace Barnes's grandfather, Wallace Barnes, was born in 1827 and worked at his Bristol family store as a druggist and later as a clock-maker for several firms.

The elder Wallace Barnes then sold the hoop skirt wire for over $1,500 and started his own business manufacturing hoops and steel springs in 1857; later, in 1859, he continued solely with springs when the hoop-skirt demand declined.

Wallace Barnes attended Bristol public schools before graduating from Deerfield Academy in 1944.

Wallace Barnes owned a plane, which was stored in his Connecticut home.

In 1949, while at Williams, Wallace Barnes founded Nutmeg Air Transport Inc.

Wallace Barnes worked as the assistant to the Treasurer of Northeast Airlines, Inc.

Wallace Barnes was named president of the group that same year.

In 1977, Wallace Barnes became the chair and chief executive officer, a position he served until he retired in 1991.

Wallace Barnes had served on the board since 1963 as chair of the management development committee and as a member of the executive committee and the committee on board directors.

Wallace Barnes served as Bristol Republican town chairman from 1953 to 1955, and in 1954, was the Republican nominee for US Congress in the 1st District.

In 1970, Barnes ran against Thomas J Meskill for the Republican nomination for governor in Connecticut.

In 2004, when Meskill died, Wallace Barnes remarked in his obituary that the two were friends before the primary and remained so for long afterward.

Wallace Barnes was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1956,1958,1960,1964,1988, and 1992,2004, and 2008.

Wallace Barnes has served on the boards of numerous public and private companies.

In 1962, Wallace Barnes began serving as a Bristol Board of Finance member for three years.

Wallace Barnes became president of the Bristol Boys and Girls Club in 1965 and served until 1968 when he became an honorary director.

Wallace Barnes is a Life Member and was on the board of regents of the University of Hartford, where he served as chair from 1991 to 1993, from which he received an honorary degree in 1988.

Wallace Barnes has been a director of nearly twenty companies and groups, including the Metro Hartford Chamber of Commerce, the Manufacturer's Association of Hartford, the Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford, the Loctite Corporation, the Rogers Corporation, and many others.

Wallace Barnes was a director of Rohr, Inc from 1988 to 1998, where he served as chair from 1994 to 1998 and as chair of the Tradewind Turbines Corporation from 1994 to 1998.

In 1971, Wallace Barnes joined the board of directors of the Aetna Life and Casualty Company, a holding company of the Aetna Life Insurance Company.