Carolyn Barr

Carolyn Barr Van Sciver - 2003-08-20
I have been living in Denver, CO for the past 28 years. I love the mountains, dry climate, and outdoor lifestyle of Colorado.

After several years of trying to “find” myself I graduated from Stephens College in ‘73 with a BFA. I had gone to Univ. of MO for a couple of years and then got a chance to go to upstate New York to work. While there I married and my daughter was born there. After being divorced, I came back to Columbia and finished my degree at Stephens. I moved to Denver in 1975 and have been here ever since. In 1999 John Van Sciver and I were married on Valentine’s Day at the top of the Loveland ski area. Between us, we have three daughters. My daughter and her family live in southern California near Irvine. They have two small sons. She works as a Human Resource specialist and her husband is an attorney. John’s older daughter is a Russian teacher who spent three years in Moscow teaching Russian at an English speaking diplomatic school. She just moved to Munich to teach at another diplomatic school. The younger daughter lives in San Clemente, CA and is teaching art. She was recently engaged and will be married next summer. Both John and I work for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. I drew geologic maps for the department until computerized mapping pushed me into working in the Director’s Office. John is a water engineer for the state. We both have enough years with the state to be looking at retirement within the next year. That will be an exciting change of life style and we are making plans for it. . My parents still live in Columbia.

John and I are both avid skiers, and also like to travel, hike, ride, raft, and backpack, although that pack is getting heavier by the year. We are “old house” people and have been restoring a historic house for the last 10 years. We live in one of the old central Denver neighborhoods. We like to say working on the house keeps us out of trouble. I hope we live long enough to get it finished! I never dreamed it would be a “work in progress” for so long.

Bio for 50^th Reunion HHS

I moved to Columbia in 9^th grade. Before that we had lived on a farm in south MO for 10 years and then in Brunswick, MO for 3 years. Both my parents are teachers. Like so many families, we moved to Columbia so my Mother could go to graduate school at the University. We lived just off campus that year and the four of us kids treated the campus as our giant playground and place to explore. Sophomore year we moved into the house on Sylvan Lane where my parents lived for 48 years. We also got our horse that year. My sisters and I spent endless hours exploring the woods and Hinkson Ck area near our neighborhood on horseback. We were horse crazy – an affliction we still share.

School in Columbia was a big change from the small town schools we knew. Mom got her Master’s and started teaching Spanish and Latin at Hickman the fall of 1960, just as our class of 63 came in as sophomores. I soon realized that Hickman was a special school, but it wasn’t until I got a lot older, that I realized just how special. Coming from small towns, I thought the high levels of performance and competition that was expected of us was just a “big town” thing. I assumed that all large schools operated on the same “mini college student” model as Hickman. That level of intellect and excellence was just the way of life in Columbia, and I never gave it a second thought at the time. I must admit, I worked my tail off, and felt I was always behind everyone else. But it has served all of us well, as we went out into the world as adults. My favorite teachers at Hickman were Mrs. McTurnan, Mr. Behrens, and Mr. Eckert. McTurnan just blew me away with all the things she had done, places she had worked, her sense of fun, and knowledge of English Lit. She was one of the most influential instructors I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a number of great instructors.

I took time off from college to “find myself” and worked in upstate New York a couple of years. I married Dan Amato there and my daughter was born in Plattsburg, NY,in 1968. The marriage soon ended in divorce, and I came back to Columbia and finished college, getting a BFA from Stephens. After working at a children’s wear company in Kansas City for two years, I jumped at the chance to take a simular job in Denver, where I’ve been ever since. Moving to Denver was like the song says – coming home to a place I’d never been before. I’m a mountain person at heart.

The company I came to work for dissolved about a year after I moved here and after some false starts, I went to work for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, drawing maps. Over time I switched into working for the Natural Resources Director’s Office as assistant to the Deputy Director, and spent a total of about 30 years working for the Dept of Natural Resources. It was a pretty good fit as I’m an outdoorsy person and enjoy working with people. I love to ski, hike, bike, canoe, and camp. And I’ve never lost my interest in horses, even tho I haven’t owned one since high school.

In 1999, I married John Van Sciver. We own a historic house built in 1900 near downtown Denver that we have spent years of time and sweat renovating. John has two daughters. All three of our daughters have sons – my daughter has two boys ages 14 and 11, and his daughters each have a son, ages 4 and 5. Quite a change to go from all daughters to four grandsons!

Both of us retired from working for the State of Colorado in 2004. We wonder how we ever had time to work! We spend our time working on house projects, skiing in the winter, or spending time at our little mountain cabin in the summer. We both are active in neighborhood volunteer work and I’ve become quite active in historic preservation groups over the last 20 years. Volunteer work keeps both of us pretty busy.

Our daughters live on both coasts of the US and one is in Germany. Our siblings are spread all over the country too. So visiting our daughters and family involves plenty of travel in this country, and we’ve also traveled to Russia, Germany, Canada, and New Zealand. There is still a lot of the world I want to see and lots to do. The words “bucket list” are starting to creep into our vocabulary! We think we still have several years of time to do the things we’d like to before we become too old and decrepit!

Pictures

You may remember that I sent pretty much the same pic for our 40th. I thought it would be fun to do a 10 year update. The mountain hasn't changed. We have gotten slower and grayer! That rock pile mountaintop gets harder to climb every year. But we still can do it - not bad for a couple turning 67 in a week (me) and December (John). John plans to use this same photo for his 50th reunion.

Nov, 2010
Hole in the Rock, Bay of Islands, New Zealand

The Fundy Whale Car, taken in Aug, 2011,
at the Hopewell Rocks Park, Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, in Canada.

Daughter, Shannon's 21st Anniversary
husband Mark, sons Liam, age 14 and Gavin, age 11

Jeanne & Vernon Barr where they live at Tiger Place,
which is in Bluff Creek Estates Subdivison, where I live
August 17, 2010 when I DJed there one afternoon
picture taken by Charley Blackmore