Dr. Barclay Moffat Shepard passed away on Aug. 1, 2026, at the age of 100.

He was born in Boothbay Harbor, Maine on June 16, 1926, when his parents, Dr. Lorrin and Virginia Moffat Shepard, were on leave from Turkey. In 1927, the family went back to Turkey, and he and his siblings, Alice, Frederick, Robert, and Connie attended the Community School while residing in Istanbul with their parents. Barclay graduated from Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts with the Class of 1944. He attended Maine Maritime Academy in Castine, ME, and graduated with the Class of 1946, then served as an Ensign, United States Naval Reserves, in the U.S. Maritime Service aboard the cargo ship, S.S. Coeur d’Alene Victory where he sailed the seven seas as a Merchant Mariner.

In 1947, he applied and was accepted at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, where he majored in history and minored in French, performed with the Bowdoin Glee Club, Acapella Choir, and participated in the Mask and Gown Theater Group. As a student at Bowdoin, Barclay met Martha Loughman of Waban, Massachusetts, and they married in June of 1951. The couple moved to Istanbul, Turkey, where Barclay taught English at Robert College from 1950 to 1953. While there, their first son Douglas was born, and Barclay decided that he wanted to follow in his family’s footsteps and study medicine.

In September of 1954, after a year and a half of premedical studies, he was accepted to Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. Martha gave birth to identical twin sons, Richard and David that December. Funding his medical schooling with a military scholarship, Barclay went on active duty with the U.S. Navy, after graduating from Tufts in June of 1958.

After completing a one-year internship and a four-year general surgery residency at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, Barclay was transferred for two years to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Beaufort, South Carolina, where he became certified as a general surgeon, and was later enrolled as a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. By this time, he decided that he wanted to specialize in chest surgery, and he was transferred to the U.S. Naval Hospital in St. Albans, New York, where he was certified as a thoracic surgeon in 1967.

In 1967, the Vietnam War was in full swing and Barclay volunteered to serve. He was assigned to the U.S.S. Repose AH-16, one of two Navy hospital ships serving off the coast of Vietnam, and he was on duty during the January 1968 Tet Offensive, where he and his team treated 160 medevacked patients in a 24-hour period.

In 1968, Barclay returned to St. Albans Naval Hospital, where he served for two years as Chief of Thoracic Surgery, then transferred back to Bethesda, serving as Assistant Chief of Thoracic Surgery for three years. His next duty station was with the Navy Surgeon General’s Office, where he headed up the Navy’s Medical Facilities Planning Division in the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Washington, D.C. During the 1970s, Barclay also served as a doctor for the National War College, and was attached to a group of 40 Far and Middle East students, traveling with them to Spain, Greece, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.

In 1978, he joined the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and was assigned to the Surgery Department of the VA’s Central Office in Washington, D.C. His team was responsible for making the connection between the herbicide Agent Orange and cancer in veterans. He also worked to help create the first electronic medical records system for the VA, and he often testified before Congressional Committees.

In 1995, Barclay retired after 34 years of government service. Retirement didn’t last long, and he was asked to serve as the Medical Director at the American Hospital in Gaziantep, Turkey, coming full circle and returning to the same hospital his grandfather had helped found. In 2001, he returned to Boothbay Harbor, where he and Martha converted his Aunt Ethel’s summer cottage into a year-round house. Soon thereafter, he and Martha chose to pursue their lives separately.

He and his partner of over 20 years, Douglas Light, made a happy and loving home together, where Barclay continued the family’s traditional lobster and clam bakes having learned the technique from Murray McKown.

Barclay was an avid sailor and skier. He was a life-long member of the Congregational Church, where he enjoyed singing in the choir; he also sang with the Lincoln Arts Festival Chorus, and the Sheepscot Valley Chorus. He was a founding member of the Boothbay Region Community Resource Council and The Woodchucks, two organizations designed to help local families in need. He was also thrilled to work with his brother, Robert in officially designating the body of water abutting their properties as Moffat Cove.

In 2022, Barclay traveled to Washington, D.C. with Honor Flight Maine. He was the Boston Post Cane recipient in 2024, as Boothbay Harbor’s oldest living resident, and was awarded the Department of Veterans Affairs Centenarian Award in 2026. His passing reflects a life well lived.

Barclay was predeceased by his parents, Dr. Lorrin and Virginia Moffat Shepard, his brothers, Frederick and Robert, and their spouses. He leaves behind three sons, and their spouses, nine grandchildren, and 20 great-grandchildren, many nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends, and his life partner, Douglas.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial donations be made to the Boothbay Region Community Resource Council or the Boothbay Region Student Aid Fund.

 A memorial service to celebrate Barclay's life will be announced at a later date. 

Hall’s of Boothbay has the care arrangements. To leave online condolences please visit hallfuneralhomes.com