Barbara Rohwer Harsch

1935 - 2024

Barbara Rohwer Harsch

March 1, 1935 - November 14, 2024

Sacramento, California - Barbara Rohwer Harsch died on November 14, 2024. Barbara was born in Sacramento, California on March 1st, 1935. She was the daughter of Otto and Helene Rohwer and the eldest of four siblings. She was married to George Harsch and was a devoted daughter, sister, wife, and mother. Barbara led an active life full of triumphs and challenges. She hunted, hiked, read voraciously, and loved to play cards, especially bridge. As a youth, she was Queen of Job's Daughters and a Girl Scout Mariner, and she graduated from Sacramento High in 1953. She then attended the University of California, Berkeley where she became Senior Vice President of Sigma Kappa sorority and graduated with a degree in Foreign Relations in 1957. She fondly recalled her college experiences for the rest of her life. A sharp student with a high GPA, she liked to tell of the time she received her lowest mark on a class exam, a "C," because she had been busy the entire night before decorating her sorority's float. She feared her father would react negatively, but to her surprise, he sent her five dollars and praised her involvement in extracurricular activities!

After graduating, Barbara married and set aside her dream of working in the foreign service. She obtained a teaching certificate and taught high school for over a decade. At Dos Palos High, she began as a long-term substitute but quickly joined the permanent faculty to become head of the English Department. Fellow faculty admired her, and she had a unique ability to motivate her students. She cared about their success and won their respect and affection. Those same qualities allowed her to succeed throughout her life in various endeavors.

In 1959, Barbara and George built a cabin in Truckee, California, and introduced many of their acquaintances to the area. Friends and relatives spent countless weekends with them fishing, boating, and sailing, and Barbara taught many of them to water ski and snow ski. When Alpine Meadows ski area opened in 1962, she and George joined the National Ski Patrol there, and for twenty-two years she served with the patrol, mentoring numerous younger volunteers. Her consistent training enabled her to teach first aid to the public and to assist during several catastrophes, including an avalanche. In the mid-1970s, the family joined the Sacramento Water Ski Club. During her years of involvement in tournament waterskiing, she became a senior judge and a scorer, served as the family's boat driver, and shuttled her sons back and forth from practice each day while they received coaching.

Yet there were dreadful times too. In 1982, she contracted Guillain-Barre disease which paralyzed her from head to toe, and while in the hospital, she caught legionnaires' disease. She spent a year in the hospital and nine months of it in the intensive care unit where she was pronounced clinically dead more than once. But Barbara was a medical miracle. Her tenacity and will to live pulled her out of the illnesses, albeit with long-term damage to her health. Her time in the hospital and her survivability won admiration from some of Sacramento's top physicians. Throughout ensuing decades, when she had occasions to stop by the hospital to be treated for an ailment, doctors and nursing staff would greet her fondly and recall how they had cared for her, in some cases over thirty years earlier, when she had been seriously ill.

Like her parents, Barbara volunteered her time and efforts. As President of the Dos Palos Hospital League, and later, of Casa De Los Niños, she devoted countless hours to charitable causes. In 1986, following a divorce, Barbara moved in with her parents and remained with them for twenty years until their passing. During the final ten years of their lives, she acted as their primary caretaker. While residing with her parents, she embarked on her over thirty-year career in real estate. Her sharp mind, organizational skills, and motherly nature brought her affection and success, and she met some of her dearest friends during her time as an agent with Lyon and Associates. Clients trusted her as did her coworkers, many of whom she mentored over the years. Among numerous honors, she served as president of the Sacramento Association of Realtors (SAR) and the SAR Masters Club, and Founding Director of the SAR Charitable Foundation. She also traveled to Washington, DC to lobby on behalf of the Sacramento area and request support for Folsom Dam. The project was significant to her because her father had done similar work years before when he lobbied for the dam's original construction. She derived great satisfaction from her various activities and continued to work well into her eighties.

Barbara spent her later years with her family and friends, traveling, socializing, playing bridge, and attending musicals and plays. Her house became the center of family celebrations where as many as twenty-two relatives gathered to celebrate holidays. In many ways, she was a family matriarch: sagacious, benevolent, caring, and devoted. As several family members stated, "It seemed like she would be there for us forever." Barbara was predeceased by her parents and brother, Robert, and is survived by her sons Fritz and Hans, and sisters, Marilyn Kinikin and Catherine Luckett (Richard), as well as various cousins, nephews, and nieces. Barbara led a full, active, and long life. Even so, the end came too soon and surprised us all. We are deeply saddened, and she is sorely missed.

A memorial service will be held January 9 from 12:00-4:00 p.m. at the Sacramento Association of Realtors (SAR) building at 2003 Howe Ave 95825. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the SAR Scholarship Foundation.