During high school he suffered a leg injury and infection playing football, which led to his interest in becoming a physician.
He had planned to study obstetrics, but when he interned at the West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, Illinois, he was persuaded to spend one year in psychiatry.
He was recommended to practice at the Worcester State Mental Hospital in Massachusetts and he stayed there until 1942, first as a psychiatric resident then as assistant superintendent.
The superintendent of the Worcester State Mental Hospital then was William Bryan, a physician who wrote the first book on psychiatric administration.
Later that year, he worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, DC (now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland) then assigned to the Valley Forge General Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, which was under construction.
Barton wanted an overseas assignment and was sent to Leyte in the Philippines as a commanding officer of a station medical hospital.
Barton found the Boston State Hospital in abominable conditions: there were only six physicians and 20 nurses to cover 2,600 patients.
In 1946, Barton began his service as a consultant to the Veterans Administration (VA) and the National Institute of Mental Health.
He worked with the commission for six years which produced the book, Action for Mental Health, a blueprint for psychiatry for the future in the United States.
Barton remained at the Boston State Hospital from 1945 to 1963, when he left to serve as Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) from 1963 to 1974.
He was involved with many organizations: a director of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology from 1962 to 1970 (president, 1970); a member of the Residency Review Committee for Psychiatry and Neurology for the American Medical Association from 1966 to 1989, an Incorporator of the American College of Mental Health Administration in 1970, a member of the Massachusetts Council for Mental Health in 1929, a member of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies in 1929, and the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry (president, 1951).
His career as a teacher began in 1931 as a lecturer to nurses, residents, and students at Worcester State Hospital.
He also received numerous honors: the Nolan D.C. Lewis Award in 1962, Salmon Medal of the New York Academy of Medicine in 1974, and an honorary D.Sc.
Barton, Walter E. "Pericardial Hemorrhage Complicating Scurvy," New England Journal of Medicine 210 (March 1934): 529–531.
Barton, Walter E. "Rehabilitation Services to the Blind and Deaf," Journal of the American Medical Association (1943): 41.
Barton, Walter E. "Progress Report on the Army's Program for Rehabilitation of the Deafened," Hearing News (1944): 6, 7-14.
Barton, Walter E. "Present Status of Rehabilitation in the United States Army," Journal of the American Medical Association (1944): 256–258.
Barton, Walter E. "The Reconditioning and Rehabilitating Program in Army Hospitals," American Journal of Psychiatry (1944-1945): 608–613.
Barton, Walter E. "Convalescent Reconditioning Program for Neuropsychiatric Casualties in the U.S. Army," Proceedings of the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Diseases (1946): 271–284.