Robert S. Barranco Jr.
Physician’s assistant had previously worked in his family’s Severna Park funeral home
Robert Salvatore Barranco Jr., a physician’s assistant who had earlier been a partner in his family’s funeral home, died of cancer Saturday at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. He was 57 and had recently moved to Sparks after residing in Severna Park.
Born in Baltimore and raised in Severna Park’s Cypress Creek section, he was the son of Robert S. Barranco Sr., who founded a funeral home with his wife, Catherine Thompson.
He attended St. John the Evangelist School and was a 1978 graduate of Severna Park High School, where he was a student athletic trainer.
He also played baseball with the recreation-league Severna Green Hornets and belonged to the Civil Air Patrol
After attending Stetson University and the University of Maryland, College Park, he earned a mortuary science degree at what is now the Catonsville campus of Community College of Baltimore County. While a student at the University of Maryland, he met his future wife, Lindsay Miller.
In 1986 he joined the family’s mortuary business and worked alongside his father and brothers. He remained at their Ritchie Highway funeral home for 17 years.
“Bob and I came to Severna Park when it was transitioning from a shore home community to a year-round place,” said Michael W. Robinson Sr., a friend. “We became members of the Earleigh Heights Volunteer Fire Company and were emergency medical technicians. He always had an interest in the medical field and was influenced by his grandfather, Salvatore, and an uncle, Frank, who were both physicians.”
Mr. Robinson, who is a retired Baltimore County Fire Department division chief, said, “Bob had a great bedside manner and he could talk to his patients. They responded well to his sense of compassion.”
Mr. Barranco earned a degree as a physician’s assistant from Anne Arundel Community College several years before he left the mortuary business.
He also received training in allergy and asthma studies at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He was an emergency room technician at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis.
He joined the Allergy and Asthma Associates medical practice in Arnold, where he was a physician’s assistant from 2001 to 2015.
“He was a good man and a wonderful human being. He was gentle. You never saw his feathers ruffled. He always remained composed and was patient-friendly,” said Dr. James R. Banks, an Arnold allergist with whom he worked. “He saw the whole spectrum of life. He once told me of death, ‘I have seen the other end of the life cycle’ and that he wanted to be on its other end, working with the living.”
His cousin Michael Barranco said, “He realized his passion was in medicine. It’s hard for anyone to start a second career. He did it, and he did it well.”
He also recalled that Mr. Barranco’s sense of humor served him well during times of stress.
“He had a little bit of mischief about him,” said his cousin. “It was not in a mean way. He could say quirky, funny things … at the right time.”
Mr. Barranco also worked at Righttime Medical Care and most recently at Concentra Occupational Medical/Urgent Care in Timonium. He was also a medic in the Maryland Army National Guard from 1982 to 1988.
He was a volunteer at the Hospice of the Chesapeake, the Lighthouse Shelter in Annapolis and Our Daily Bread in downtown Baltimore.
Family members said Mr. Barranco read the spiritual writings of the Trappist monk Thomas Merton and visited his abbey in Kentucky for religious retreats.
He enjoyed cooking and attending movies with his wife. He was a jazz devotee and spent summers in Ocean City. He also enjoyed watching his son play baseball and his daughter at her 4-H events. He was also a fan of the Orioles and Ravens.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 11 a.m. Thursday at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, 689 Ritchie Highway in Severna Park.
Survivors include his wife of 31 years, Lindsay Miller Barranco, an apiary inspector; a son, Sam Barranco of Sparks; a daughter, Madeline Barranco, also of Sparks; his mother, a resident of Severna Park; two brothers, James Barranco of Baltimore and John Barranco of Severna Park; and a sister, Carolyn Russell of Severna Park.
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