Barry Anderson, longtime Washington resident, passed away peacefully at the family home in Port Townsend on April 15, 2021. He was surrounded by Hilda, his wife of 59 years, his daughter and son-in-law Laura and David Jorgensen and his son David Anderson.
Born in San Mateo, California on Oct. 29, 1934, Barry was the son of Charles Chester and Mabel Carne Anderson and a third-generation Californian.
Barry had a lifelong love affair with travel, starting as a locomotive fireman on the Southern Pacific Railroad while a student at Stanford University and San Jose State. After graduation, he became a jet pilot in the Navy, followed by a stint as a purser for Matson Navigation in the South Pacific. He turned his love of travel into a career as a travel writer. His professional career started at Sunset Magazine which transferred him to Seattle to cover the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. From that time on, he was a Washingtonian.
Well respected as a journalist, he was the author of more than a dozen travel books and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles over a career that spanned more than 50 years. His peers elected him president of the Society of American Travel Writers.
Toward the end of his career, he founded and led the Seattle News Bureau to help fellow journalists throughout the world find Seattle story material.
Barry’s other passion was trains and he was an ardent model railroader. In later years. he shared his rich railroad experiences with other enthusiasts in railroad publications.
No service is planned.
