Barbara Ellen Bower

Barbara Bower was an accomplished individual who involved herself in a field of study and career which she greatly enjoyed, and engaged in numerous community organizations of interest. She was an independent lady, and yet thrived on the interaction with others and the exchange of ideas and opinions. She was a life-long learner.

Barbara was born in Condon (Gilliam County), Oregon and was the middle child of three born to Albert B. Bower and Georgia Herbert Bower. Barbara’s siblings, Phillip and Patricia pre-deceased her. At the age of six years, Barbara contracted Polio, and she wrote that her right side was paralyzed for a year and a half and her left leg weakened. Her writings included that the “roaring twenties never roared for me since I spent most of it flat on my back.” She reported a three-month hospitalization at age seven for Whooping Cough, and for the summer months after turning ten years of age, she endured a series of four surgeries. Difficult experiences for a young girl.

She graduated high school in Crescent City, California in 1935, and completed her Bachelor of Arts Degree at College of the Pacific in 1939. She went on to complete her Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology at the College of the Pacific in 1947. During her summer breaks at work, Barbara continued her graduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles and obtained a California License to practice psychology.

Barbara taught elementary school in Del Norte County from 1940 to 1943, and then taught in Richmond, California for two years. She wrote that she had 56 second graders which led to her suffering from laryngitis and re-thinking her teaching career. Following receipt of her advanced degree, she went to work in Shasta County where she worked in both elementary and secondary schools as a speech coordinator. From there she returned to San Joaquin County where she worked in a reading clinic at College of the Pacific and instructed future teachers. She then shifted to the Stockton Public Schools where she worked as a reading consultant and a speech correction teacher. As she obtained her license to practice psychology, she was hired as a psychologist for the Stockton school district as was involved with the blind, deaf, and orthopedically-handicapped. Barbara possessed a life Diploma from the state of California for Psychological Services, Correction of Speech Defects, Public Elementary and Secondary Teaching.

Barbara was affiliated with many organizations and served on the boards and in leadership positions with United Cerebral Palsy, Council for Exceptional Children, American Business Women’s Association, American Association of University Women, Delta Kappa Gamma (National Honor Society for Women in Education), Quota Club (service club for women in Education, who voted her Woman of the Year in 1965), Stockton Doll Club, and First Congregational Church in Stockton where she was involved in choir, Christian Education, and Women’s Fellowship.

A gracious thank you to the staff and care-givers at O’Connor Woods in Stockton which was home for Barbara for the past 20 plus years. The family would also like to thank Vitas Healthcare for the kind and sensitive hospice services extended to Barbara during the last several weeks of her life. A Memorial Service is planned for December 15, 2022 at 11:00 am at the First Congregational Church in Stockton, California.