Timothy Larkin

Timothy Larkin (age 95) died on Wednesday November 18 at home in Easton, MD, surrounded by family. Tim’s accomplishments in life are one of those rare examples of determination and fortitude. Abandoned as an infant in Hoboken NJ, in 1925, he was adopted by a kind working class Irish-American family one generation removed from the potato famines of Ireland. After his adopted father died when Tim was 15, he quit high school and got a job in the Hudson shipyards to support his mother. Directly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Tim forged his birth certificate and volunteered for the Navy and received assignment in the Submarine Service and saw action on the USS Cod in the Pacific Theater. Tim received his High School diploma through correspondence course during the War and upon returning to the United States was able to receive both his B.A. and M.A. from Columbia University through the GI Bill, followed by advanced studies at Columbia’s East Asian Institute where he added Chinese to his repertoire of foreign languages (French and German). He applied with the Foreign Service where he believed his knowledge of languages would be an advantage, meanwhile accepting a position as a technical writer. He did not feel that technical writing was merely marking time but, on the contrary, that it helped him comprehend the importance of clear, concise expression aimed at the concerns and interests of the reader. Tim was accepted by the State Department’s Foreign Service and assigned to Germany where he moved with his first wife, Virginia, and their young family. His work there involved a program called the US Escapee Program which was a combination humanitarian, psychological warfare and intelligence operation that offered political asylum, training and resettlement aid to those who fled from Iron Curtain countries in Europe and from Communist China. During his time with the State Department, Tim overheard a casual statement by a top official who had been asked to give an important speech, but needed help. He volunteered, the speech was widely admired, and crafting speeches became a major interest. In subsequent years, he wrote speeches for a number of Cabinet members, the leadership of Ford Motor Co. and the American Red Cross, as well as for a Senator seeking the Presidential nomination (Birch Bayh). Because of the complexity of its diverse responsibilities, he most enjoyed his work as Special Assistance to three successive FDA Commissioners, and received that organization’s highest award for helping explain the Agency’s contributions and limitations. With Presidential secretary Evelyn Lincoln, he also wrote a biography of President Kennedy and a political memoir of the Kennedy-Johnson years. Tim and Anna Coatsworth had married in 1968; they moved to the Eastern Shore of Maryland with their two boys in 1976, where Tim continued to work for various clients as a freelance writer. Tim enjoyed creating digital art over the past twenty years and also wrote two books of poetry, "To see what is not Shown," and "Aches and Gains" and his memoir, "A Lucky Life – So Far." Resonating with a central thread in his life, the last book he was reading as he drafted this obituary was Nobel laureate Richard Feynman’s “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out," which is not surprising, since his favorite Walt Whitman poem which concluded “Leaves of Grass,” was “Goodbye My Fancy” where Whitman summed up his speculation about death by saying “Maybe we’ll be better off and blither, and learn something.” He is survived by Anna, his loving wife of 52 years; daughter, Kristin Farwig (Jim); sons, Julien (Emily/divorced) and Liam (Nikki); and five grandchildren, Reed, Rowan, Sienna, Mika and Soleil. He was pre-deceased by son, Jefferson. For those who wish to honor Timothy, the family suggests a contribution to the Pickering Creek Audubon Center.

Timothy Larkin

April 10, 1925 - November 18, 2020