Dr. Barry Paul Michrina

Barry Michrina had a history of heart problems and died in his sleep. He was 64.

Michrina taught anthropology at the college for more than 20 years as well as classes about Native North Americans, Religion and Culture, World Cultures, and Ethnographic Methods.

He won the Distinguished Faculty Award within his first decade of teaching — an honor bestowed on him by his fellow colleagues.

Veronica Herrera, 49, was a nontraditional student when she met Michrina about 10 years ago. She was a single mother, who left high school after giving birth to her first child at 16.

“He was my advisor, my mentor. He tutored me in the upper level science classes that I had no background in,” said Herrera, who went on to earn a degree in sociology.

Tall, lean, bearded — he looked just like a professor,” Herrera said.

“He came from a poor family and he had a lot of compassion,” Herrera said. “He was humble. He admired people who came from a working class background.”

Originally from Pennsylvania, Michrina was author of several books, including “Pennsylvania Mining Families, the Search for Dignity in the Coalfields.”

He earned a Ph.D. in agronomy, and another Ph.D. in cultural anthropology.

Former student Audra Stock, who worked as a therapist and program manager at a local mental health center before moving to Germany, contacted the Free Press Thursday to talk about Michrina.

Stock met Michrina in the fall of 1993 when she enrolled in his cultural anthropology class. She quickly learned that Michrina took his classes seriously, and she wouldn't be able to skate by with minimum effort.

Stock joined a study group on his recommendation and started paying more attention in class.

“He was direct, honest and challenging,” Stock wrote in an e-mail. “Barry had an amazing gifted mind and an incredible heart.”

His classes “stretched our minds, challenged our biases, and really made us think differently, especially when it was about how we approach others.”

Michrina advised CMU's Native American Student Council, and once led a group of students to a Southern Ute Tribe Sundance.

He gave an anonymous $1,000 scholarship every year, Herrera said.

“He was always helping students,” she said.

History professor Steve Schulte was on the search committee that hired Michrina in 1990.

Schulte called his friend “rigorous and energetic,” and a “fabulous colleague.”

“He had extremely high standards. He taught his students to read and write critically,” Schulte said.

If students were not prepared in class, he was “soul searching” how best to reach them, Schulte said. “He cared deeply about his students.”

Adele Cummings, who teaches sociology at CMU, said Michrina was a true “liberal arts” professor who believed students should learn broadly about a lot of subjects.

After teaching her upper division contemporary sociological theory class Thursday, many students lingered to share stories about Michrina — how hard he was, and how much they learned from him.

Lynn Albers is a CMU student who Michrina also advised and served as a mentor. He never ceased to challenge his students both academically and intellectually, she said.

“Dr. Michrina was interested in much more than just academia. He was interested in each of us and in building a better world community,” Albers said. “His teaching system, which encouraged personal reflection and critical thinking, often resulted in significant personal transformation. It seemed you could literally watch yourself and your classmates become more compassionate and better informed members of society.

“Dr. Michrina simply made us all better people I personally feel a great void due to his untimely passing and CMU has lost one of its finest professors.”

Michrina was single, and leaves behind a mother and five siblings in Pennsylvania.

Schulte remembered his last conversation with Michrina on Friday.

Not only has CMU lost a great teacher, “the Pittsburgh Pirates have lost their best fan in Colorado,” he said.

Sharon Sullivan

Grand Junction Free Press

Staff Writer