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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Dr. Robert McFarlin, Pemberton restorer, dies

SALISBURY -- Dr. Robert McFarlin, a psychiatrist who moved to the region four decades ago to practice medicine but also became an unofficial authority on historical properties and a restorer of old homes, died Wednesday in Salisbury after a battle with Parkinson's disease, according to family and close friends. He was 76.
McFarlin started practicing at Peninsula Regional Medical Center in 1967, and at about that time agreed to lead an effort to complete restoration of the 1741 plantation home in western Wicomico County, Pemberton Hall, carving a niche in the region's medical community and circles of architectural history.
The quiet, dedicated doctor and preservationist with a passion for archaeology was known for a strong work ethic, continuing his duties at the medical center, the Pemberton Hall Commission, and at his private psychiatric practice until the neurological disorder forced him to retire in 2007.
"In the more recent years, he worked despite his medical disability," said Dr. C.B. Silvia Jr., vice president of medical affairs at PRMC. "He still wanted to work. We marveled at him, he loved it so much."
William Wilson, a retired educator and former chairman of the Pemberton Hall Foundation Inc., credits McFarlin for not only completing the restoration at Pemberton Hall, but for helping convince the Wicomico County government to create Pemberton Historic Park, a 64-acre preserve surrounding Pemberton Hall.
"Bob, along with others, convinced the county to form Pemberton Historic Park in the 1980s," Wilson said. "He's been instrumental in historic preservation for more than 40 years."
McFarlin caught the attention of local history preservationists almost from the start, restoring the 1750s Somerset County plantation known as Harrington. He went on to head the restoration of Pemberton Hall and the 1733 Green Hill Church on the banks of the Wicomico River near Salisbury.
"Our last outing was visiting a plantation on the Eastern Shore of Virginia," Wilson said of a trip a year ago to Northampton County. "We visited an 18th-century, one-room house that was sitting in the middle of a field. That's the kind of thing he liked doing."

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