While working as a 20-something police officer in Warren, Mich.-Detroit’s largest suburb-in the late 1970s, Tom Barwin reached a crossroads in his life.
The choice was to finish law school or keep working on the force. Barwin took the third option and went back to school to study public administration, then came back to Warren as a top official.
Barwin, 53, was born in Detroit in 1954, the oldest of five children in an Irish-Catholic family. He was 19 when his father, an insurance agent, died of a heart attack. Shortly after, Barwin went to Michigan State University to study criminal justice.
He grew up as an athlete, playing basketball, baseball and football through high school, but he wanted to do something different and had an interest in the FBI and CIA. He took a job as a police officer in Warren while also taking classes at the Detroit College of Law. The demands of the force made him miss two or three classes a week, and when he tried to get some leeway from his superiors, they wouldn’t budge.
“They had a hard-nosed attitude, and I had to work every shift,” he said.
Instead of submitting, Barwin went to Central Michigan to obtain a master’s degree in public administration, with the intent of changing the corruption and incompetence in local village government.
“I tried to get in a position where I could hire talented people who were a little more progressive and create a more positive environment, which is exactly what I did,” Barwin said. “Within four years, instead of working for a backwards police chief, I was in the position of hiring progressive police chiefs. Instead of working for police chiefs who tolerated brutality and racism, I was able to hire a chief who was pro-education and who didn’t tolerate brutality or a hint of racism, which was a big problem at that time in metro Detroit.”
Barwin’s friend won election as mayor of Warren, and he hired Barwin as his chief of staff. After working as a cop from 1977 to 1981, Barwin served as a city administrator for Warren from 1981 to 1985. He had virtually no experience, and had to learn in a pretty “rough and tumble” environment.
“To survive, you had to learn quickly,” he said. “I was thrown right into the frying pan from day one.”
The same police chief who wouldn’t give Barwin leeway to go to law school was forced to resign under the new mayor. Barwin’s role was to hire a new, more open-minded and tolerant chief. He also helped uncover and correct corrupt practices.
“It was a tough four years because when you’re upsetting the apple cart and you’re perceived to be threatening the system, people take the gloves off. It was a pretty brass-knuckled four years,” he said.
Barwin left Warren after eight years amid political infighting and a change in regime. Though downtrodden and unsure of his career path, he was happy with what he accomplished in the city of 130,000.
“We took that community on a quantum leap as far as I could tell,” he said.
Barwin met Peggy Bailey, 53, his future wife, while working as a public safety officer at the Michigan Department of Mental Health prior to becoming a police officer. He married Bailey in 1979 and the couple had four (now college-age) boys during the mid-1980s.
After Warren, Barwin dug ditches for six months and contemplated his future.
“I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to stay in city management,” he said. “But after having a few months off, my wife and I talked and said let’s give it one more shot.”
He was hired by St. Charles, Mich. (pop. 3,000), and spent almost eight “delightful” years as their city manager. The board met once a month, and staff numbered 10. He had a sprawling home and time to coach T-ball and basketball with his little boys.
“It was like living and working in a Norman Rockwell painting,” he said.
Barwin was young and filled with energy from working in a bigger city, and he injected some of that energy into the small town. Michigan’s governor took notice, and Barwin was offered a job converting an air force base into private ownership, which he accepted.
After conquering that, Barwin took a village manager position at Ferndale, Mich. (pop. 22,105 in 2000), which he dubs as the “Oak Park of metro Detroit.” Among his accomplishments were revitalizing a historic downtown, regenerating infrastructure, and “continued exceptional city service in [a] downsizing environment,” Barwin told the Wednesday Journal in 2006.
He stayed in Ferndale until he was hired as Oak Park’s new village manager in June 2006, replacing Carl Swenson who left in April of that year. Barwin said he expects to be village manager here for 5-10 years before stepping aside. After that, he’d likely like to teach.
Currently Barwin and his wife live in one of the Barrie buyback homes, which he hasn’t yet purchased. He lives just three blocks from village hall and 11 houses from the Blue Line. He’s still working on selling his former Detroit home, which has been on the market since he moved in 2006.
Besides working 60 hours a week, on average, Barwin somehow finds time to keep an eye on his son Connor’s involvement as tight end for the Cincinnati Bearcat football team.
He reads blogs and updates on his son’s squad, and even finds time in his busy schedule to attend the games. Dec. 22, Barwin and his wife traveled to Birmingham, Ala. to watch the Cats beat Southern Miss 31-21 in the PapaJohns.com Bowl. Young Barwin, 21, had a season-high seven catches for 86 yards.
The elder Barwin would eventually like to spend time traveling around the world, exercising, reading or getting back to his old passion of recording oral histories. He isn’t so different from Oak Park, whatever the challenge may be.
“In some ways, Oak Park is everything and more that I thought it would be-in terms of what it has done and what it aspires to do,” he said. “What I’m surprised about is how little time I’ve been able to spend on some of the overarching challenges and goals that communities like Oak Park are willing to tackle. Best I can tell, Oak Parkers never see a challenge they’re not willing to tackle, whether it’s a neighborhood or global issue. That was part of the attraction in coming here.”
-Marty Stempniak