NAHANT — Nahant Board of Assessors Chair and former Selectman, Perry Barrasso, died Thursday at age 56.
A cause of death has not been disclosed.
Described by many who knew him as a dedicated family man, the longtime Nahant resident leaves behind a longstanding legacy of service to the Nahant community.
“Perry was very much a public service kind of guy,” said Barrasso’s neighbor, former Selectman Skip Frary. “For a kid who grew up in Danvers, he knew more people in Nahant than a lot of people who have lived here their whole lives.”
Barrasso, who was born in Salem, moved to the small seaside town of Nahant in the mid-1990s, where he quickly became involved in local politics, eventually going on to spend two terms on the board of selectmen in the mid-2010s. He also spent more than a decade on the board of assessors and was serving as the committee’s chair at the time of his death.
“My parents died when I was 18, and I kept everything inside, but he was the only person I ever told things to,” said Barrasso’s longtime friend, Mike Dunn, who described Barrasso as a loyal confidant who loved to cook and enjoyed pizza and beer nights with friends at Nahant’s Kelley Greens. “It’s going to be tough without him.”
Barrasso married his high school sweetheart, Kerry Quinn, in May 1990; together, the couple raised three children: Kelsey, 27, Shannon, 26, and Craig, 21.
“She and he were inseparable,” Dunn said. “They met when they were 17 years old. They worked together and they spent all their time together. Perry was a family man. He loved his kids.”
Dunn also recalled Barrasso’s close relationship with his father-in-law, Tom Quinn, whom he worked with alongside his wife, mother-in-law, and brother-in-law at the family’s Lynn-based insurance agency, Quinn Insurance.
An avid golfer, Barrasso often met with Quinn, who died in 2017, Dunn, and others for Kelley Greens’ Wednesday night golf league.
“Other than the fact he was a family man who loved his wife and children, he was probably the only guy I know who could hit a driver on a 150-yard par 3 and then start putting from 100 yards out,” Dunn said with a laugh. “He was just a great person.”
Selectman Mark Cullinan, who served as town manager during Barrasso’s tenure on the board of selectmen, also noted Barrasso’s strong commitment to Nahant.
“If I could sum one thing up about Perry, he was just a nice guy,” Cullinan said. “He cared a lot about family, he cared a lot about his friends, and he cared a lot about the town.”
In addition to serving on Nahant’s board of selectmen and board of assessors, Barrasso also spent time as president for the Lions Club and previously worked as a bartender at Kelley Greens.
“Even though he was Italian and married into an Irish family, he mastered what’s known as the Irish goodbye, which is the art of leaving a social gathering without bidding farewell,” Dunn said. “However, on the other side, if he started talking Nahant politics, you couldn’t get him out of the place.”
Frary added: “He tried to serve the town however he could. He was a real positive person who enjoyed giving back to the community he lived in.”
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].
