Lyndon O. Barton

In Loving Memory of

Lyndon O'Dowd Barton

June 21, 1934 to July 26, 2026

Lyndon O'Dowd Barton, a man whose curiosity and creativity carried him from a small village in Guyana to a lifetime of achievement in engineering, mathematics, art, and invention, passed away peacefully on July 26, 2026, at the age of 92. Born in Buxton, Guyana, he built an extraordinary life spanning two countries and many disciplines.

Lyndon began his education at St. Augustine's Anglican School, later earning a scholarship at Comenius Moravian Elementary and his Junior Cambridge School Certificate at Progressive High School. He trained as a pupil teacher, served as a Scout Master, and showed an early gift for art, winning a countrywide prize for his painting of the Buxton Railway Station.

As a young man, he entered the Guyanese Civil Service while continuing his technical education part-time, earning certificates in mechanical engineering and technical drawing. He won a countrywide essay contest on technical education and a prize for a welcome arch design honoring Princess Margaret's visit to Guyana. In 1961, he came to the United States on what was meant to be a six-month vacation, a trip that changed the course of his life. He enrolled at Howard University's School of Engineering and Architecture, where he was elected president of Tau Beta Pi and inducted into Beta Kappa Chi and Pi Mu Epsilon.

Lyndon graduated cum laude from Howard with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, earning top honors in his class. He joined the E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Company as an engineer, a career spanning three decades, while earning a Master's degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Delaware. He also began a lifelong second calling as a part-time instructor, teaching mechanisms and strength of materials at Delaware Technical & Community College.

Over the following decades, Lyndon authored the textbook Mechanism Analysis: Simplified Graphical and Analytical Techniques, later releasing a second edition, and published numerous technical papers. Based on his published work, and he was listed in Marquis Who's Who in Science and Engineering in America. He earned four U.S. patents for board game inventions, was recognized by the Committee for the Improvement of Buxton (CIMBUX) for his contributions to art and culture in Buxton, and received DuPont's Silver Award for Excellence in Engineering before retiring as a Senior Engineer. He continued teaching at several Delaware institutions and helped found the Guyanese Association of Delaware.

His artistic pursuits led to one-man exhibitions on the historical landmarks of Newark, Delaware, and Buxton, Guyana, He later received another patent for his Fun Multiplication Puzzle, published paperbacks on Amazon, and launched an app based on his invention.

In February 2022, at age 87, Lyndon achieved the most remarkable feat of his life, publishing “A Procedure for Trisecting an Acute Angle,” a construction using only a straightedge and compass, resolving a problem that had stood unsolved since antiquity for over two thousand years.

Lyndon often said he owed his multi-faceted life to his love of art and mathematics, good role models, and a creative approach to problem-solving. He is survived by his wife, his sisters, his four children, his four grandchildren, and extended family, along with the many students, colleagues, and friends whose lives he touched.