Barry G. QUIRK

Born August 14, 1918 in St. Louis to Michael Quirk, an immigrant from County Cork, Ireland, and Alma Barry Quirk. The first of his family to attend college, Barry graduated from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1939 with a Bachelor's in Journalism. He married Marian Edwards, the daughter of U of M basketball coach Professor George Edwards on April 5, 1941. Barry is survived by Marian, his wife of 72 years, daughter Sharon Anderson, sons Kevin and Brian, five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Barry worked for a newspaper and later as a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp commander and, having been called to active duty with the Army Air Corps after Pearl Harbor, helped staff a pilot and aircrew training base, Rosecrans Field, near St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1945 he was posted to Hickam Field, Oahu, later to Guam, and separated from the ACC as a Lt. Colonel in 1946. In 1950 he and Marian planned and built their own house in Mill Valley. They moved to San Francisco in 1955. Barry worked as a personnel manager for various federal agencies including the Department of the Army, Internal Revenue Service, Treasury, Civil Service Commission (in Honolulu) and Defense Contract Audit Agency, Western Region. Barry retired from government service in 1973 and moved to Santa Rosa. Barry's favorite pastimes were golf, contract bridge, ball room and folk dancing, and travel in the U.S. and overseas, including many ocean cruises. At age 60 he earned his pilot's license, bought an airplane and continued flying for 15 years. Since the 1950's, Barry and Marian have been members of various Unitarian Universalist congregations, in Marin County, San Francisco, Honolulu and Santa Rosa. After a long, happy and very lucky life, Barry died of natural causes on February 7th at Vintage Brush Creek Assisted Living in Santa Rosa. A memorial service will be held at the Santa Rosa UU Congregation Santa Rosa, 547 Mendocino Avenue on Sunday April 6, 2014 at 3:00 p.m.