A Portage Life in the Spotlight: Thomas Barnett

A Portage Life in the Spotlight: Thomas Barnett

After the tragedy of 9/11, Thomas Barnett, a lifelong Porter County resident asked himself, “What am I doing for others?”

So, that year he showed up at one of the sites of Porter County Habitat for Humanity, hammer in his hand ready to go to work.

After a few months, he was on the board of directors, and now is the president of the organization, getting started on the 28th house built in Porter County.

Barnett was born in Gary and moved onto a 20-acre farm as a boy in 1952 in the Portage Township area. He continues to live on part of the land his father bought long ago.

He graduated from Purdue University Lafayette with a biology degree, then straight to a Masters program in geology at Northeastern University in Chicago.

“I grew up on a farm and always loved animals so I went into biology,” he said. “Then, I took some geology courses at the end of my senior year and really liked them. I saw Northeastern had a good Masters programs and said, ‘Hey that sounds good.’”

He calls it all a “life of serendipity,” looking back at schooling, becoming a certified geologist in the state of Indiana and working within Arcelor Mittal.

He started at Inland Steel in the environmental department, making sure everything done at the mill was in compliance with the new air and solid waste rules that were being issued from Congress and the EPA, he said.

He spent six years a consultant, then returned to the mill, now working at the East Chicago plant.

Barnett was drawn to Habitat for Humanity for the organization’s model. It is more than a group of people coming together on a few Saturdays to voluntarily build a house. It is a group of men and women of all ages working on building houses with their bare hands for people to eventually live in.

Plus, Barnett said, these houses are not just given to the soon-to-be-residents.

“We don’t give people stuff, they have to put a lot of hours into the house too,” he said.

They end up with a small mortgage on it that includes insurance and taxes also, he added.

“This is not a hand-out, but a hand up,” he said. “It is a way to mainstream them back into society.”

Once done with the home, the organization provides financial literacy classes to help teach the new homeowners how to organize and handle their money.

Barnett started off as one of the volunteers working on his first home and now is leading new helpers during the house construction.

“It’s fun. Everyone out there has a god time,” he said. “On a Saturday working out there, there may be eight volunteers. Some are fairly skilled and some have never seen a hammer.”

Barnett and his team lead a safety orientation and point people to their job for the day.

“We always have something to do,” he said. “We have donuts and lunch brought out. People go home feeling pretty good about themselves.”

Right now, Barnett is finishing up the landscaping of a Habitat for Humanity house already built in Portage and is starting a home that will house a 10-person family, the biggest family yet to be included in the organization.

When not building houses, Barnett is riding his bike. An avid cyclist, Barnett spends his summers out riding 40-plus mile bike rides. A few weeks ago he and a friend started in Portage and rode to West Lafayette, covering more than 100 miles in the trip. After a good, nourishing meal the wives picked up the riders and headed back home.

Barnett and his wife have been married 43 years and they have two children and two granddaughters.

Because of work, volunteering, and summer and winter biking, the TV at the Barnett house is seldom turned on, he said laughing. Instead, he is out with his family and with the great people he has befriended in Porter County.

“People here are straightforward and honest and they are just good people,” he said. “Really, I would not like to live anywhere else in the country.”