Obituary of V. Lee Barnes

V. Lee Barnes of New Canaan, CT died on August 2, 2021 at the age of 85. He is survived by his daughters, Sarah Barnes of Park City, UT, Victoria Lovely of Telluride, CO and Samantha Barnes of Andover, MA.

Lee was born in Fort Sill, OK to Lt. General and Mrs. Verdi B. Barnes. He graduated from Groton School, Harvard College and Harvard Business School.

During his 50 plus-year career as a management consultant, he served as a Partner at McKinsey & Company and Ernst & Young Consulting, among others. In 2005, he joined the HBS Community Partners Club of Connecticut, a pro-bono consulting group focused on helping non-profits throughout the state.

Lee took great pride in working with teams of volunteers advising  non-profit and community  organizations on addressing strategic and policy issues, as well as other efforts such as  improving service delivery and administrative effectiveness.   He was honored to serve  as the Community Partners Board Co-Chair for 4 years and Board President for 2 years.  In all, he worked on 79 different projects.

Lee remained active throughout his life and particularly enjoyed surfing in Hawaii, biking on Nantucket and skiing in Europe.

In addition to his daughters, Lee is survived by his grandchildren, Simon Lovely, Margaux Lovely and George Jensen, and his sons-in-law Tim Lovely and Brad Jensen.  Lee was predeceased in 2020  by his wife of 54 years, Nancy D. Barnes.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Lee’s name to Staying Put in New Canaan (stayingputnc.org) or to the New Canaan Community Foundation (newcanaancf.org).  A memorial service for Lee will be held on October 8th, 2021 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in New Canaan, CT at 11:30am. To join the memorial service online go to www.stmarksnewcanaan.org and click on “Watch Live” on that day and time.