Robert W. Barrick recently left us after a long battle with COPD at the age of 87. He was the second son of Lt. Colonel James (Jack) Barrick, a lifelong resident of Oak Park, and Ellen Metz of the Austin area, whose mother was a concert pianist who played at Buckingham Palace.
Bob was active in Boy Scout Troop 380, whose Scoutmaster was his older brother Jim. He also served as a lifeguard at the officer’s club at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, where he lived with his father, a career military officer, who was stationed there at the time. Bob graduated from Oak Park-River Forest High School, joined the Illinois National Guard, then volunteered for the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. He was stationed in Florida as a fireman. Upon returning to Illinois, he sold steel for a friend’s small steel company, Steel Distributors Inc. He sold Commercial Real Estate for Jerry Orzoff and Assoc. (Jerry was later founder of the ‘Lettuce Entertain You’ restaurant group) and was a loan officer at the Olympic Savings and Loan in Berwyn. In 1972, he joined the City of Elmhurst and worked in Streets and Sanitation and Fresh Water for the next 23 years.
Bob’s leisure time was spent cycling with the Elmhurst Bicycle Club, traveling weekends to Indiana and Michigan for club rides. Twice he rode the seven-day ride BAMMI (Bicycle Across the Magnificent Miles of Illinois). It was on a bicycle, 45 years ago Bob met his lifetime partner, Marilyn Rubin Ciucci. In retirement, he volunteered 20 years as a transporter at Elmhurst Hospital and 20 years in the children’s department at Brookfield Zoo. He also took a course in American sign language, and afterwards he and a classmate developed a course for the Elmhurst police department, to facilitate their interactions with the deaf community.
The year he retired 1995, he said he wanted to go on a cruise; Marilyn and he took a five-day cruise. After that there were seven-day cruises to at least 12 Caribbean islands, two to Hawaii, three down the west coast of Mexico, and one to Alaska. Why did he like cruises? He said you only had to unpack once, and all the food was included. Bob and Marilyn spent many happy Christmas Holidays and summer vacations with Bob’s son Ken and his family. Bob was the proud father of two sons, William Barrick (Tony), and Dr. Kenneth Barrick (Julie) of Citra, Fla. Two beloved granddaughters are also in Florida, Madison, 21, and Kylie, 18. He is also survived by his niece Darlene Urlaub, and his brothers-in-law Charlie and good friend Ron.
In lieu of flowers, please consider giving to Guide Dogs For The Blind, P.O. Box 151200, San Rafael, Calif., 94915 or guidedogs.com
A celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 7, 2020 at Elmhurst Community Funeral Home – The Ahlgrim Chapel, 567 S. Spring Road, Elmhurst. For information 630-834-3515 or ElmhurstFH.com.
