Anthony "Tony" Irons

BARRINGTON, NH - Anthony Ewing Irons died on September 19, 2023 after a brief hospitalization in Dover, NH. He was 75. 

Tony was known and loved for his ability to create deeply personal connections unrestrained by standard social barriers. A friendship with Tony was not affected by differences in age, language, religion, or political structures. Each friendship was distinct and individual, built on its own foundation of respect, quality of character, and a shared enthusiasm for the marvels of life. And once a connection was made, it was never lost.

Tony was born on Friday the 13th in August of 1948 to Davison Ewing (Rusty) Irons and Alda Hanlon Irons in Richland, WA. The family moved to Wyoming, OH and stayed there until his father’s death when Tony was 10. The death of his father, and the subsequent move from Ohio to Exeter, NH, marked a pivotal point in the lives of all seven siblings. Tony wrote of that time in one of his memoirs, "it was the fire that fused the family together,” creating a closeness that they actively maintain today. 

He found meaningful purpose in his teenage years while attending The Meeting School, a Quaker boarding school in Rindge, NH. There he formed lifelong friendships that would remain impenetrable to his last day. Together these friends, young men and women, both black and white, traveled into the deep south rebuilding churches targeted by the terror of the Jim Crow era. Those times formed the bedrock of his moral compass, and that compass remained unwavering throughout his life.

After The Meeting School, he began amassing experiences that we would later hear as grand stories. Because Tony was a master storyteller, fueled by the endless enjoyment he found in their telling, and that of his audience in the hearing. And those stories were always spectacular – of being shot at climbing up the anchor chain af a Russian tanker in the Black Sea; of fistfights in Stuttgart; of narrow escapes from some self-induced trouble in Istanbul; of the humility and growth on a Kibbutz in Israel; and once back home, of the tragic and beautiful connections he made with patients in the mental institutes where he was assigned to work as a janitor by the government for his stance as a conscientious objector to the war.

One of Tony’s favorite stories to tell was of coming home to Alda’s house in Newfields at age 16 and seeing Lee Navin sitting in front of the fireplace with her two little boys. He vowed – there and then – “I am going to marry this girl.”  Seven years later, Lee and Tony were married at the same house in Newfields with his mother, Alda, and Lee’s mother, ‘Mimi’, as witnesses along with her two boys Randy and Rusty.

He brought his new family deep into the Barrington woods, to The Scruton Pond Farm Community, down a long-forgotten town road he’d cleared himself with a chainsaw.  There they would build both home and family together, adding two more boys, Moses and Zackary, to their lives. It was a time of humble living, hard living, but a time filled with love and music. That home remains filled with love and music today.

Over the course of his life, Tony would be recognized for impressive high-profile achievements. He took pride in his accomplishments, but more so in the path that he took to achieve them – no one paved the road to success for Tony, that road was another he cleared himself. He never completed a semester of college, yet became a licensed architect and rose to prominence as the City Architect of San Francisco. But at each stage, he was forever a carpenter. His education had taken place on construction sites, learning the fundamentals of building from old-time New England craftsmen, practiced with hammers, levels, and framing squares, and earned through busted knuckles on winter mornings.

Tony co-founded Irons & Quinto Associates in the 80s, working out of a small office on the Vaughn Mall in Portsmouth, NH. It was there he learned the intricacies and science of architecture, absorbing all he could while working alongside his friend and Architect, Dan Quinto. Their projects included Tuttle’s Farm Market, Brock’s Plywood, The Christmas Dove, and the Barrington Elementary School.

These were the lessons he took with him to San Francisco in the early 90s when he first began working as a city employee. And it was the recognition and appreciation of these same core qualities that elevated him through ranks of leadership to be named City Architect by Mayor Willie Brown. That position came after Tony, then Project Manager of the renovation and seismic retrofit of SF City Hall, had completed the $300M project on time and under budget – words seldom used in describing government projects.

A few years later, he was awarded a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. “It was a wonderful year,” Lee remembers, “filled with intellectual challenges, travel and lasting new friendships.” He honed his writing skills during that time in Cambridge, and went on to write and publish multiple novels.

He manifested a life that most would have thought impossible. But Tony disregarded the notion of ‘impossible’ and carved a path through life on his own terms, dictated by his convictions and a confidence seemingly pulled from a deeper well than most. However, it may not be his legacy that will have the most staying power, but rather the way in which he passed on the best of his qualities. He encouraged us to be fearless against impossible odds, to laugh loudly and often, to sing out of tune, and to dance as oddly and unhindered as you damn well please.

Tony is survived by his wife, (Janet) Lee Irons; sons Randall Scott Navin, Russell Seward Navin, Moses Ewing Irons, and Zackary McAllister Irons and daughter-in-law Patti Condon; granddaughter Maija Navin; his older siblings Peter, Rockwell, Amanda and Mariah, younger brothers Henry and Dean; and his many nieces and nephews.

ARRANGEMENTS:  Tony will be celebrated in a “Toast to Tony Irons,” Sunday, October 22, 1-6pm in the field behind Calef’s Country Store in Barrington, New Hampshire. Assisting the family with arrangements is the Cremation Society of NH, Hampton. To view Tony's Online Tribute, send condolences to the family, or for more information, visit www.csnh.com.