Barbara P. Minor

Born Barbara Louise Phillips on Sept. 24, 1943, in Akron, Ohio, she is predeceased by her parents, Donald Ross Phillips and Virginia Kerr Phillips. Barbara lived in Canal Fulton, Ohio, as a preschooler; Ferndale, Mich., as a grade-schooler; and Bellaire, Texas, as a high-schooler where she was a National Merit Scholarship finalist. In the late summer of 1961, she arrived on the campus of her father’s alma mater, the University of Rochester, where she met her future husband, James Carr Minor, on the first day of Freshman week. They have been “an item” ever since.

Barbara and Jim were married in the First Presbyterian church of Batavia, New York (Jim’s hometown) in their senior year. They moved to Providence, R.I., after graduation (Bachelors in Chemistry for Barbara) so Jim could attend graduate school at Brown University and Barbara could continue her studies at the University of Rhode Island focusing on Library Science. Upon graduation they then moved to Washington, D.C., with their 2 children where Barbara worked as an independent contractor in the U.S. Patent Office and Jim worked at the Naval Research Laboratory, returning to Rochester in 1973 to be closer to families on both sides. At the time of her diagnosis in 1999 Barbara was employed in the research labs of Rochester Midland Corporation. A lover of books, Barbara was at one time president of the Gates Library Board, and subsequently head of the Gates Environmental Council.

She will be immensely missed by Jim, her adoring husband and caregiver, by her son, Thomas (Mehrnoush) Minor of Boulder, Colo., (grandchildren Alexander and Amelia), daughter, Christina (Jim) Kolberg of Brighton (grandchildren Andrew and Krista) and brother, Andrew Phillips of Costa Rica, as well as brothers-in-law David (Joann) Minor and Paul (Judy Bennett) Minor.

Barbara will be fondly remembered as a warm and loving wife and mother, a marvelous cook, a lover of literature, having an eclectic music taste spanning hard rock to opera, and a life-long student of all the intricacies and beauty of the natural world, enjoying especially her summers at their cottage and surrounding woods on Cayuga Lake which had been in the family for generations.

There will be no public gathering. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in her name to the Alzheimer’s Association, Rochester & Finger Lakes Region, Planned Parenthood, or the Bergen Swamp Preservation Society, Inc.