Please share your thoughts and memories of Scott as an opportunity to come together in shared appreciation of what Scott has meant to us.
Carol and Michael Eisenberg were close friends with Scott for more than 20 years. Read the eulogy they delivered at his memorial service.
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I want to thank Mike and Carol Eisenberg for their beautiful eulogy for our dear friend and colleague Scott Barker. Their words brought back such wonderful memories.
It is nice to reflect back to 1998 when a number of us, including Scott, arrived on the UW campus to build a very special school. We all drank the cool aid but I think Scott may have returned for an extra serving. We all know how deeply devoted Scott was to the iSchool. It was very important to him that our school would become a world-leading place to work and learn. He also knew that our school would have a deep and lasting impact on the UW campus and beyond. He worked tirelessly to support our faculty, staff and students. In fact, he was a vital ingredient for what came to be known as iSchool “magic”.
Scott was a great leader. He wholeheartedly embraced the vision of the iSchool. His first role as IT Director was to establish a leading edge IT infrastructure for our school. Imagine the incredible advances in technology that have taken place over the past two decades. Scott and his team have ensured that our IT infrastructure has keep pace with every new innovation developed to support research, teaching and information work. He not only achieved this for the iSchool, he also worked across the UW campus with UW IT and IT directors from other schools and colleges to ensure that our university IT resources were interconnected and available for collaboration. He negotiated large scale software licenses and hardware purchases. He enhanced the reputation of the iSchool through all his interactions with IT leaders on campus.
In other words, Scott went well beyond what might be expected of an exceptional IT Director but that was not enough to completely satisfy his passion for our school. He knew he had more to offer and took on the role of chair of the informatics program. In every thing that Scott achieved, he would always acknowledge the hard work of our faculty and staff and the many contributions made by our students, but I think it is fair to say that Scott was the driving force behind the incredible success our our informatics program. For Scott, the informatics program was his way of expressing his devotion to our students. He loved our undergraduate students. He knew that our school could provide each student with a transformative educational experience and he worked relentlessly to achieve that goal. It is a great comfort to think about the wonderful legacy Scott provided through his work as the informatics program chair. When we conjure up the thousands of informatics graduates who are now, and will be into the future, making a positive impact on our world, we know that Scott’s life had great purpose.
When Scott had a heart attack a couple of years ago, Lorraine and I took our granddaughter Kitty to visit him. Kitty was six at the time and Scott was so sweet with her. He showed her all around his lovely home. She marveled at his robot vacuum cleaner and his lights that worked by voice command. She was so astounded that she asked Scott “are you rich?” We all thought that this was very funny. What does it really mean to be rich? Well, there is no doubt in my mind that our lives have been greatly enriched by our friendship with Scott Barker. God Bless you Scott.
It is nice to reflect back to 1998 when a number of us, including Scott, arrived on the UW campus to build a very special school. We all drank the cool aid but I think Scott may have returned for an extra serving. We all know how deeply devoted Scott was to the iSchool. It was very important to him that our school would become a world-leading place to work and learn. He also knew that our school would have a deep and lasting impact on the UW campus and beyond. He worked tirelessly to support our faculty, staff and students. In fact, he was a vital ingredient for what came to be known as iSchool “magic”.
Scott was a great leader. He wholeheartedly embraced the vision of the iSchool. His first role as IT Director was to establish a leading edge IT infrastructure for our school. Imagine the incredible advances in technology that have taken place over the past two decades. Scott and his team have ensured that our IT infrastructure has keep pace with every new innovation developed to support research, teaching and information work. He not only achieved this for the iSchool, he also worked across the UW campus with UW IT and IT directors from other schools and colleges to ensure that our university IT resources were interconnected and available for collaboration. He negotiated large scale software licenses and hardware purchases. He enhanced the reputation of the iSchool through all his interactions with IT leaders on campus.
In other words, Scott went well beyond what might be expected of an exceptional IT Director but that was not enough to completely satisfy his passion for our school. He knew he had more to offer and took on the role of chair of the informatics program. In every thing that Scott achieved, he would always acknowledge the hard work of our faculty and staff and the many contributions made by our students, but I think it is fair to say that Scott was the driving force behind the incredible success our our informatics program. For Scott, the informatics program was his way of expressing his devotion to our students. He loved our undergraduate students. He knew that our school could provide each student with a transformative educational experience and he worked relentlessly to achieve that goal. It is a great comfort to think about the wonderful legacy Scott provided through his work as the informatics program chair. When we conjure up the thousands of informatics graduates who are now, and will be into the future, making a positive impact on our world, we know that Scott’s life had great purpose.
When Scott had a heart attack a couple of years ago, Lorraine and I took our granddaughter Kitty to visit him. Kitty was six at the time and Scott was so sweet with her. He showed her all around his lovely home. She marveled at his robot vacuum cleaner and his lights that worked by voice command. She was so astounded that she asked Scott “are you rich?” We all thought that this was very funny. What does it really mean to be rich? Well, there is no doubt in my mind that our lives have been greatly enriched by our friendship with Scott Barker. God Bless you Scott.