Barbara Baumeister Super
Biography, 1955-2005

Oh my god, fifty years? Time to update the bio. After graduation, I went to Stanford for a year, then got married. I can hardly believe now that we used to drop out when we got married, but I did, carried away by a knight in shining armor to a three-bedroom house in San Carlos. We moved to San Mateo when I was pregnant with our third and last child. The marriage looked great from the outside, I guess, but it wasn’t working, and he was never home. When I realized that I had gone from not being able to sleep until I knew he was home to hoping that I would be asleep and I wouldn’t have to talk to him when he finally came home, I bailed.

I had no real work skills, no money of my own, but if I was going to be alone, it would at least be by my choice. The first thing I did was to resume skiing which I had given up because husband didn’t. The second thing was to go to College of San Mateo to learn computer programming. I remarried, this time to a skier and budding Photographer. Working as a programmer, I put second husband John through school at City College of San Francisco to learn commercial photography. Then I quit Fireman’s Fund Insurance and went to CCSF, too, and we had a photography business together. It was a fun and interesting job, and I liked being available for the kids, because our studio, darkroom and office were in our San Mateo home. However, personal and financial conflicts put a more-or less amicable end to that marriage, and age thirty-nine I was back to programming for large corporations again (shudder).

In the summer of 1984 I got my last "straight" job as a programmer for B of A. I am not cut out for the corporate life, and as soon as I handed in my resignation, after 11 months, the migraine headaches got much better. The time I had taken off to get my head together convinced me that I could make it without selling my soul to big business, so I became a Computer Consultant for individuals and small businesses, and worked part-lime for Bill Graham Presents doing Security at shows. Since quitting BGP, I’ve somehow been able to get by, and I make up in the entertainment department by volunteering with Rock Medicine, a division of the Haight Ashbury Free Medical Clinic which does medical services at rock and roll shows and other public events.
I took the entire winter of 1987-88 off to travel around in my VW camper, skiing in nine states and B.C. It was wonderful. Maybe I’ll do it again when I hit 70, although I think I would choose a rather larger vehicle this time.

In the winter of 1989-90. I decided to fulfill a long-held ambition to become a ski instructor. After teaching for a season at Boreal, commuting from the City, I was convinced that ski instructor was my destiny and thought I would retire in Truckee, where I lived full-time for the next six years. I found a San Franciscan really can’t live outside the City and moved back to SF in 1998. In 1999-2000 I was able to build a house in Truckee; acting as owner-builder gave me a new respect for contractors. The house is rented, but the apartment under the garage allows me to move to Truckee in the winter to continue teaching skiing. Summers I work at different things, including repairing and remodeling the properties. Right now I am undergoing a major remodel while living in the upstairs flat, part of the process of selling a half interest in the building with the intention of converting the units to condominiums. I hope by the reunion we will be over the worst of the plaster dust and noise.

Children: Three, all with first husband. The oldest, born Douglas, is now Christine, a male to female transsexual. Christine’s experience has convinced me that not only is it a real phenomenon (female brain in male body, or whatever), but that undertaking the long, expensive and arduous process of changing one’s sex can allow an individual to blossom, to become their true “self.” She now lives in Los Angeles with her two cats and telecommutes from her home Christine also writes, and like many people in LA, is shopping her screenplays.

My middle kid, my son, became a Podiatrist; he lives in Roseville, but he doesn’t kayak much whitewater anymore. Scott had a midlife crisis, decided to become an elementary school teacher, and in the process fell in love with his mentor as a student teacher - an attractive widow with two children. Instant grandmother! I’ve brought the grandkids up to Sugar Bowl, where I now teach skiing so I can show them that even an “old lady” can snowboard. It’s hard to believe that the oldest, Galina, a daughter, is graduating high school in 2005. Cameron, a son, will a junior in high school this year.

My youngest daughter Sue, is a Microbiologist. She now works for a company in Santa Barbara, doing trouble-shooting/quality control on their medical products. Lately she’s given up marathons, and it doing Triathalons, instead. Thank goodness for the Internet. All of us keep in touch more or less constantly by email, although I get visits on a regular basis.

Barbara and Bob Student at 50th Reunion Dinner October 2006