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28
January – March 2014
www.deltalivingmagazine.com
By Walter Ruehlig
walter.ruehlig@gmail.com
Photos by Maria Tavares
G
rowing grass under her
toes is a new feeling for
Barbara Cowan. After a life of
wanderlust, she is grounding her
retirement in Antioch.
Barbara now prides herself on
being a neighborhood fixture. She
says,“I love the fact that I can walk
my block, ring any doorbell, and
know the person answering.” To
boot, Barbara takes joy in a new-
found very public life as an An-
tioch School Board Trustee. Top
vote getter in a 2012 field of nine,
she confides;“Being on the School
Board has changed my life.”
This naturally introspective
lady relishes the school board role.
Barbara passionately advocates
for children and draws from her
experiences as a life-time educa-
tor. She’s taught elementary and
middle school in Arizona, Oregon
and here in the BayArea, Pittsburg,
CA. She has also trained teachers
and served as a middle school, high
school and adult Ed administrator.
Ever-modest, Barbara shrugs
off mention of being a “power
couple” with husband Richard
Asadoorian, an elected County
Board of Education Trustee. Bar-
bara does, though, champion her
husband’s baritone and acting tal-
ents.
Barbara also prides her daugh-
ter Nora, a social worker, and her
two grandsons.
Selling their RV after trying out
life on the road, Barbara still hears
travel’s siren, recently returning
from river-cruising France. Maybe
Life-long Learners Make Great Teachers
Remembrances of the military career of her father, Col. Gerard C. Cowan.
Embroidered Mayan calendar purchased in Chichicasterango, Guatemala
where she served as a translator for volunteer Rotarians who build schools
in remote villages.
Barbara Cowan