Michael Barber
November 26, 1952 - March 21, 2023
Obituary
We regret to inform you of the passing of Michael James Barber on March 21, 2023. Born November 26, 1952 in Ottumwa, IA, he was the son of Donald and Marilyn Barber and brother of Paul, John (deceased), and Phillip. He spent his formative years in Centerville, IA. He met his wife Annette in college. They married in 1972. Together they had four children: Justin who lives with his wife, Erin, and two sons, Jacoby and Morgan; Caleb (deceased); Jill (Graham) who lives with her husband, Marc, and two sons, Desmond and Jaxter; and Jared.
Michael worked as a ski lift manager at Hunter Mountain, NY for a season, then relocated to Colorado to explore the mountains and enlist in the Air Force. He served in Texas, New Hampshire, Alaska, and Utah. Elmendorf, Alaska was his primary tour, six years, where he traveled extensively supporting bases including Elmendorf AFB, Shemya AFB, Galena AFS, King Salmon AFS, and 13 DEW Line sites for the Civil Engineering Squadrons.
After several years of casual college classes, Michael enrolled at Montana State University and moved to Bozeman, MT. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, Master of Science degrees in Mathematics and in Engineering Mechanics, and finally Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Engineering and Computational Mathematics. Despite actively working towards those degrees, he managed to spend time watching his children's events and introduced them to skiing at Bridger Bowl.
In 1993, he became a professor at Montana State University-Northern in Havre in a fledgling Engineering program. Here, he was part of a faculty exchange with Thames Valley University in England at Slough, Berkshire and Ealing, London where he relocated for a term.
In 1998, Michael became Chief Information Officer at Montana State University Billings where he transformed the technology in the academic arena both on the main campus and at City College until his retirement in 2019. He directed Institutional Research and eLearning to move the university forward.
In addition to being a fan of technology, he was a fan of travel, learning and sharing new ideas, and read voraciously. He spent an astral summer in Antarctica (McMurdo and South Pole Stations) with National Science Foundation research to stabilize Antarctic air strips.
He traveled throughout Wyoming and the Northwest for a summer sailing on various bodies of water. As a member of Leadership Montana, he shared his insights across the state while honing his leadership skills. He loved to drive cross country in order to visit his family and friends in LA, Tucson, Denver, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Savannah, Williamsburg, Kansas City, Iowa City, Victoria, and Wyoming.
His children share particularly fond memories of him. Frequently, they would bond over quart sized root beer floats, lunch that featured graham crackers and frosting, and eating out at one of Michael's many favorite restaurants. Justin loved seeing his dad in the stands at his basketball games across the state and discussing theology and machine learning with him. Jill enjoyed the many adventures her dad took the family on, seeing dad at her plays, and finding excuses to suggest getting coffee. Jared learned about matrices in second grade from him, appreciated his patience even when he repeatedly crashed his father's email server in Havre, and learned about discipline through his father's disciplined Air Force approach to many problems.
Annette has walked beside him this Life's journey and it has been a ‘good run'.
Michael was analytical. He enjoyed reading and entertaining new and ancient ideas alike. His collection of thousands of books on topics including math, science, history, and, most notably, theology. He was open for discussion should you be able to coax it out of him.
He will be missed by all who were blessed to know him. His life, legacy, and love will continue – he is gone from among us, but not from within us.