Barrie G Klaits

July 2, 1944 – October 17, 2025

Barrie Gelbhaus Klaits, 81, passed away on October 17, 2025. A loving mother, grandmother, daughter and sister, Barrie was deeply committed to helping people who were less fortunate.

The daughter of the late Harold Gelbhaus and Ruth (Ronnie) Gelbhaus, Barrie grew up in the small town of Little Silver, New Jersey, where she developed lifelong friendships and excelled in school, especially in foreign languages. A lover of languages, Barrie became fluent in both French and Spanish and dabbled in a wide range of others, including Vietnamese, Farsi, Russian, Italian and Portuguese.

Barrie had a lifelong love of geology. She received a B.A. in Geology from Barnard College in 1965, following which she travelled to Paris where she became an accomplished researcher in paleontology. She published an illustrated field guide to geology for young readers in 1976, When You Find a Rock. The book was inspired by her passion for teaching her own two children about rocks and fossils they would find near their home in Michigan. She also co-edited Animals and Man in Historical Perspective in 1974 with her husband Joseph Klaits, with whom she was married from 1965 until 1992.

During the 1980s, Barrie became a pillar of the community in Columbia, Maryland, serving as Assistant Director of the Foreign-Born Information and Referral Network (FIRN), an organization that assists and celebrates immigrants and refugees. She was given the Professional of the Year Award in 1988 by the Association of Community Services of Howard County. This community outreach work epitomized her worldview of welcoming people across lines of cultural difference, an orientation she implanted in her sons.

Barrie loved gardening, opera, traveling across the world, and spending time with her grandchildren.

Barrie is survived by her brother Roy Gelbhaus, her two sons Frederick and Alexander Klaits, her two daughters-in-law Laura Rusche and Gulchin Gulmamadova, and her four grandchildren, Adam, Nathan, Adrian, and Sophia Klaits. Barrie spent the final three years of her life in the home of her family in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

A committal service will be held at King David Memorial Gardens, located at 2712 Hollywood Rd, Falls Church, VA 22042, on October 20, 2025, from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

Following the committal service, a visitation will take place in the James Room at National Funeral Home, 7482 Lee Highway, Falls Church, VA 22042, from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm on the same day.