Today's Featured Biography

Daniel Barkley

Daniel Lee Barkley was "Danny" to his family in Pinole, California. His sister was enough older that they never became playmates; Danny turned to the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. When he was about 12 years old, his dad asked if he'd like to learn to play a musical instrument thinking Danny might take up piano like his sister. But Danny asked to learn something else, and before long found himself taking drum lessons from a family friend. That friend also taught the kids in the Richmond Hawks Drum and Bugle Corps, and before long Danny had joined that youth organization, and it literally changed the whole direction of his life. Danny became Dan and grew up in the Hawks, traveling through much of California for parade and field competitions. In 1963, the Hawks took fourth place in a national competition in Seattle - the first time a California Corps had placed in Nationals since 1932; even better, Dan's drumline took 3rd place in that event besting some drum lines with national prominence, making the whole experience a true “once in a lifetime” memory.

Danny lived in Pinole, and in 1959 – living on the north side of new Interstate 80 – was transferred to RUHS as part of a redistricting action. It was a long commute from Pinole to Richmond, which left little opportunity for after-school activities (and by then the drum corps had become both hobby and “family”). But in the classroom, Dan, wanting to acquire practical job skills that didn’t require heavy lifting (!), worked hard to excel in stenography and typing – somewhat unusual in the male population, but (a) it gave him an excuse to spend time with some pretty girls, and (b) those skills were surprisingly useful in future career moves.

When drum corps rules required Dan to leave the Richmond Hawks at age 21, he began to teach Corps-style drumming to others. That took him to Stockton in 1968. He’d worked for the Santa Fe Railroad and Consolidated Freightways in the Bay Area; in Stockton, he worked as Office Manager with the Community Action Council of San Joaquin County for four years. That led to being manager and eventually Vice-President of Art Samuels Pallet Manufacturing in Stockton; he stayed with Samuels for 10 years before taking an opportunity with what was then American Savings and Loan.

The position with American Savings was another life changer, for during that time - the early 1980s - Dan discovered the personal computer. He was fascinated by this new technology … bought one of the very early models to have at home … studied it and practiced and talked to others … learned about operating systems and word processing applications and databases … and began to learn basic programming. By 1987, Dan was Corporate LAN (local area network) administrator for a division of American Savings - the first in the company.

Along the way, Dan had met and married Martha (Marti) Castelo. They married in 1968, and had two children, Patricia and Daniel. They divorced a few years later. A few months after the divorce, Dan sued for and won legal custody of the children (the first time a father had been granted legal custody in the San Joaquin County courts). In 1979, Dan married Barbara Hovey, a nurse in a Stockton hospital. Sadly, Barbara died of cancer in 1986.

Dan married a third time (1987), to Marcia Mather, who also worked at American Savings. When Marcia's job was moved to new company headquarters in Irvine, California, Dan was able to move into a new position based in southern California, still working with local area networks, but now at the corporate level. In 1998, both Dan and Marcia found themselves changing jobs when American Savings was acquired by Washington Mutual, and they took advantage of the situation to return to northern California, settling in Fair Oaks, near Sacramento. Dan put his technology skills to use at Health Net Insurance for a few years, and when THAT job was outsourced in 2009, Dan took the opportunity for early retirement and never looked back!

Shortly after the move to Fair Oaks, Dan and Marcia decided to get a dog, just for a pet. But the dog they adopted from a local rescue group was a Border Collie named Star (who became Belle Starr, for the lady outlaws of 1880s Nevada). This turned out to be another life-changing event, because this very smart dog deserved to be more than just a pet. Marcia loves the art of dog training, and before long she and Starr were learning and competing in agility, and Dan was called on to build a variety of equipment, mount ribbons on the wall, and take care of the cat (and eventually a second dog) when Marcia and Starr went off to win more ribbons! More importantly, Starr was the impetus for getting involved in the creation of a dog park in Fair Oaks. Since 2001, Dan has been very actively involved in the volunteer group that supports the dog park: a member of the Board of Directors, “dog park ambassador,” volunteer for building shade structures and planting trees, and almost daily visitor for 11 years! As a sideline, he also designed, coded and maintains the web site for the dog park: http://www.fordog.org.

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