Michael B. Barker, an internationally known architect and urban planner who combined his professional interests with a passion for yacht racing and performing country music on his guitar, died peacefully in his Vermont home surrounded by family and keeping his sharp wit till the end. He was 77.
Barker was the son of Cecil Benedict Barker, a well-known radio personality in San Francisco in the 1930s, and Helen Hobrecht, a professional singer. His father was a close friend of famed Hollywood comedian W.C. Fields. The young Barker acquired a set of nesting drinking cups from Fields and they became the focus of many memorable voyages on his Tartan 34 yacht on the Chesapeake Bay and on Lake Champlain. Barker wrote and published two well-received memoirs about growing up in California as well as numerous other works on architecture and urban planning.
During his 40-year professional career, he held top posts in Washington, DC, with the American Institute of Architects and the American Planning Association. He was the project leader for the effort that designed and built an entire new town for 250,000 people in the UK. In 1991, he returned there to help celebrate the town’s 25th anniversary and completion. In his career he also served as the director of planning for the City of Palo Alto, California; and principal in the Burley Architectural Partnership, Waitsfield, Vermont.
During his busy life he took time to teach future architects and planners at the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University, Palo Alto; and George Washington University, Washington, DC. His most popular and influential course offering had students actually designing a city. He was honored to serve on numerous juries for architectural awards and competitions.
During his assignments in Washington, DC, he represented the U.S. Department of State and the National Academy of Sciences at 46 international forums on design and development, presenting papers on each occasion that were published. He was elected president of the International Honorary Society of Land Economics and served as a construction industry arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association.
Barker’s high-profile career was almost pre-ordained: Selected as the Outstanding Graduate in his 1963 Berkeley graduating class, he shared the speaking platform with President John F. Kennedy. His education was in civil engineering, architecture and city and regional planning.
His nonprofessional activities included music, tennis, sailboat racing, skiing and hiking. He won many yachting trophies with his sons crewing on the Chesapeake Bay and later on Lake Champlain. He served on the board of governors of the Lake Champlain Yacht Club and as the president of the Tartan 34 Association.
He recently completed a book about his experience as a cancer patient navigating the waters of the medical system called My Journey: A Worm’s Eye View of Cancer available soon at Barnes and Noble, Amazon and Google Preview.
He leaves his two married sons: Chris Barker, a mechanical engineer, and his wife, Jennifer, living in the Seattle area; and Matt Barker, a motion picture executive, and his wife, Jennifer, living in the Los Angeles area with three daughters. He is also survived by his sister, Helen Pascoe, of San Francisco; his half-sister, Loraine Gast, of Novato, California; his half brothers, David, Hilary and Phil Hampton, living in the San Francisco Bay Area; and his longtime companion, Sigi Haslinger, of Fayston, Vermont.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on May 21, 2016, at 1:30 p.m. from Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church in Waitsfield. Interment will take place in Warren Village Cemetery. Assisting the family is Perkins-Parker Funeral Home in Waterbury. To send online condolences visit www.perkinsparker.com.
