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www.deltalivingmagazine.com
January – March 2014
she gets her love of travel from
her father Jerry, who served tours
in the Philippines and Korea after
graduating fromWest Point, the U.
S. Military Academy.
Count her mom, MaryWelby-
Cowan, though, as her pure in-
spiration. Barbara beams, “Mom
taught her progeny the love of ad-
venture.” Born in Panama to a ca-
nal engineer, Mary flew bi-planes
in Peru; fled Shanghai for Taiwan
after the Communist occupation;
moved the family to Guadalajara,
where she sent her daughters to a
bilingual school teaching Spanish
and French; and retired in theVir-
gin Islands.Mary’s funeral was held
at the Fresno Zoo where she had
volunteered as a beloved docent
for eight years.
The apple never falls far from
the tree. After interviewing Bar-
bara I could see why she encour-
aged me to first watch her video
memorial tribute to mom. “You’ll
know me so much better after you
know about her” she wisely said.
Aptly, Mary had sent Barbara to
Madrid and Grenoble to study for
two years after high school to “en-
rich life as a world citizen.”
Recruited by the Teacher
Corps, Barbara recalls her proudest
triumph; “My crowning achieve-
ment was starting the pioneering
cross-curricular,
team-teaching
Foothill Middle School in Fresno.”
She trumpets life-long learning
to making her a good educator.
“I was always eager to grow and
turn personal improvement into a
difference for my students,” she
said
Making a difference also drove
her orphanage volunteering and
Rotarian commitment to “service
above self.”
Offsetting earlier years of little
extended family connection, Bar-
bara now eagerly pursues geneal-
ogy, taking her husband’s family
tree back to the 19th century.
Antioch is blessed that this
warm, engaging, and infinitely cu-
rious lady, with a twinkle in her
eye and rich life story to tell, has
taken root to our town and people.
Barbara’s daughter, Nora, hus-
band, Adrian, and two awesome
grandsons, Matthew, 5, and Na-
thaniel, 10 live in Visalia, Califor-
nia.At every opportunity, the fam-
ily visits each other.
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Delta Living - Jan&Feb.indd 1
12/12/2013 9:49:57 AM