SLAC technician and racquetball enthusiast Clyde L. Barker dies

By Dawn Levy

Clyde Louis Barker, a principal installation technician at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) who coached the Stanford racquetball team to the collegiate nationals in the 1990s, collapsed while preparing to play racquetball at a Mountain View club on March 28 and could not be revived. The victim of an apparent heart attack, he was 55.

Born Aug. 6, 1948, in the Bronx, Barker came to SLAC in 1969 as a summer student. At the end of the summer, he continued to work for Bob Baker in SLAC's cable installation group while attending San Mateo College. The Shipping and Receiving Department hired Barker in 1972. When personnel were needed in other areas, Barker chipped in to work in the fabrication shop and the Drafting Department, where the group leader saw Barker's potential and suggested that he take some drafting classes and stay with the group. Barker took classes and went on to work, updating and revising drawings, with the bubble chamber group. When a layoff came in 1980, Baker quickly rehired Barker as a cable installation technician. Throughout the years, Barker installed countless miles of cable, including computer, instrumentation and power wiring for two of SLAC's three major endeavors, the BaBar experiment and the SPEAR3 facility.

In 1988, Barker met Shyla Watson. The couple married in 1993.

In 1994 and 1995, Barker, a certified racquetball instructor, coached a Stanford racquetball team that took sixth place in the collegiate nationals. This was the first time that Stanford had placed that high in a national racquetball championship.

"Clyde Barker was easily one of the best-known racquetball players in the Bay Area, having played in tournaments at the highest levels ('A' and 'Open') for over 25 years," wrote Keith Copeland, '77, a Stanford employment manager during the 1980s, in an e-mail interview. "He coached Stanford's racquetball team and gave individual/group lessons at 'The Club' (formerly 21st Point) in Mountain View. While technically superb (had received training from professional players like Steve Strandemo), he was known for teaching the strategy and psychology of the game—which was an extension of how he lived his personal life (competitive, fair, fun loving)."

Kirsten Valley, one of Barker's racquetball students, said: "His enthusiasm for the sport was infectious and evidenced by the many students he helped throughout his life. The example he set both on and off the court will be remembered by all." A dozen e-mails sent to Stanford Report show others lauded Barker as being "generous with his time, spirit and friendship" and "gifted and talented and a man of integrity," as having "an ever-present intensity—it always came out with a chuckle and a smile," and as sporting "calves of steel" ("If you ever bumped into him, or his legs, on the court, it was like running into a wall!").

He also took part in youth and adult basketball programs at the Community Center in East Palo Alto and volunteered for his church, Emmanuel Baptist, in San Jose.

Proud of his place of employment, Barker recommended to the Shule Mandela Academy, which his children attended, that SLAC be placed on the "must see" list for field trips. He was instrumental in having students participate in Juneteenth and Black History Month programs at SLAC.

His style, recalled friend Andie Clarke in an e-mail, was "gray sweat pants and high-top gym shoes, not much chitchat ('Serve the ball.') and his infectious grin. Clyde didn't get 'drawn into' some of the antics of a small club and preferred instead to be with Shyla and the boys or go to work."

"He will be remembered as the guy that was just very easygoing," said longtime friend Ed Wilson, a technician who has worked at SLAC for 37 years. "He got along with everybody."

Barker is survived by his wife, Shyla Barker of Oakland, an administrative associate for Bio-X, Stanford's interdisciplinary biomedical research initiative; sons Rahsaan Barker of Irvine, Calif., and Andre Avant of Oakland; and a granddaughter, Lily Barker of Irvine.

Flowers can be sent to Emmanuel Baptist Church for Monday delivery at 467 N. White Road, San Jose, CA 95127, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. A memorial service will be held there Tuesday, April 5, at 11 a.m.

Donations in Barker's memory can be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (120 Wall St., 19th Floor, New York, NY 10005, https://www.jdrf.org) or Emmanuel Baptist Church Children's Ministries (467 N. White Road, San Jose, CA 95127, http://www.emmanuelbc.org).

Editor Note:

A photo of Barker is available on the web at http://newsphotos.stanford.edu.

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