Barbara K. Nyberg

1927 - 2015

Barbara Kircher Nyberg passed away on August 24, 2015 in Pasadena, California. She began life as Barbara Mae Kircher on January 18, 1927, in the small town of Olivia, Minnesota. She was the eighth of nine children born to Frank and Alma Kircher. Barbara's father was an engineer and banker, and her mother was a homemaker.

After graduating from Olivia High School, Barbara enrolled in Carleton College where she majored in Philosophy and Religion. She graduated in 1949 and soon after moved to Seattle, Washington to be near an older sister. In Seattle, Barbara met and married her first husband, Jovan Moacanin, and they had two children, Catherine and Peter. In 1956 Jovan accepted a position at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the the family moved to Pasadena, California.

Following their divorce a few years later, Barbara married John Nyberg, a renown Pasadena architect. Barbara and John had two children, John and Frank. It was a full house, including John's four children from his first marriage on weekends and holidays. The family lived in the "round house" designed and built by John in the Kinneloa area of Pasadena.

Barbara was a lifelong volunteer. She was a member of the League of Women Voters and a volunteer docent at the Gamble House, Pacific Asia Museum, and Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena. She served on the PTA of her children's schools, and in her eighties she became a volunteer math tutor at a local elementary school.

Barbara is also remembered for her Gallery 8 lunch room at the Pasadena Museum of Art and her Gallery 8 restaurant in Old Town Pasadena. She also spent several years as a travel agent, running her business out of the Brunswick Court Building on Colorado Blvd.

Barbara loved the outdoors, and had a passion for gardening. She and John took all of their children camping and river rafting, and in her later years she treated some of her grandchildren to Elder Hostel outdoor adventures.

Barbara Nyberg was an involved, respected, and loved member of the Pasadena community and her large extended family. She will be missed by family and friends.

She is survived by her four children, eight grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

A memorial and celebration of life will be held Sunday October 25th at 11:00 in the morning at the Brunswick Court Building on Colorado Boulevard. Entrance to the second floor is on the Mills Place alley to the west of the building.