It is with sadness the class officers report the death of Barbara Murck on October 15, 2022 in Mississauga, Ontario following a sudden and brief illness with pancreatic cancer.

Born in New York, Barbara moved with her family and attended high school in Missouri. She transferred to Princeton sophomore year from Smith College. At the time, her older brother, Christian Murck, was a Princeton graduate student and Resident Advisor. He wrote, “She needed a course to satisfy Princeton’s science requirement. I recommended an introductory course in Geology because I knew the department assigned its best teachers and tried to make the course interesting in order to attract more students. The course was known among undergraduates as Rocks for Jocks but it was much more than that joke suggests. Barb found it fascinating, majored in Geology, and went on to a PhD at the University of Toronto. So the department’s recruiting strategy worked and Barb found her career and lasting intellectual interests at Princeton.”

After graduating with her A.B. Magna cum Laude in Geological and Geophysical Sciences, Barbara spent two years in Ivory Coast as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching French and becoming interested in international development. She returned to graduate school at the University of Toronto, receiving her PhD in Geology in 1986. Barbara married Jack King and they settled in Mississauga where they raised two children. Barbara was a professor in the Department of Geology and Programs in Environment at the University of Toronto, Mississauga since 1995 and a distinguished recipient of their President’s Teaching Award. Author of more than 20 textbooks and scholarly publications in Earth Science, Geology, Environmental Science and Sustainability, she was also instrumental in designing a field course titled Ecology and Conservation in Ecuador: Amazon, Andes and Galapagos. One of her best selling books was “Geology: A Self-Teaching Guide” published by John Wiley & Sons.

A dedicated community volunteer and avid hiker, Barbara was a member of the Board of the Trillium Foundation, the Ontario Science Centre, and EcoSpark. She was dedicated to the preservation and conservation of the Bruce Trail corridor, and recently had been invited to join the Board. Hiking brought her much peace and joy.

In her Princeton 25th Reunion Yearbook essay, Barbara wrote, “Outside of work, kids, and house, I devote many hours to writing; special education programs for gifted children; Scouting and Guiding; Unitarian Universalism; and Amnesty International.”

Classmate Jamie Sethian recalls, “When the pandemic hit, I had no idea what to do — I teach at a college, and the whole world of online instruction was a giant unknown to me. Barb turned out to be an expert — she had done remote instruction at the University of Toronto (with a class size of 1200!), and knew all the ins and outs (including how to keep their attention, juggle slides, and handle chat rooms and raised hands, as well as depressing strategies about how to deal with cheating). She was a guiding light through those crazy times.”

 

Lifelong friend Arnell Hinkle remembers, “I first met Barb in St. Louis, Missouri when we both attended a city-wide summer school program after our sophomore and junior years of high school. Although we were from different sides of the city (and tracks) we bonded over our love of science, hippie philosophy, music, and nature. We became close friends. Along with her brother, Chris, an East Asian History graduate student, I convinced Barb to transfer from Smith College to Princeton after freshman year so that she could pursue her interests in East Asian studies and Japanese. Although our studies of Buddhism with Bill LaFleur became a cornerstone in our lives, we both ultimately ended up majoring in Geology. We roomed together sophomore, junior and senior years (in Laughlin with Nancy Sills, in Brown with Pat Scott, and in Spelman with Kathy O’Leary and Libby Heston).

Barb and I spent a lot of time together – walking in the Institute woods, listening to Joni Mitchell’s album “Blue”; and (as female, public school, Midwesterners) learning to navigate the Ivy League world. After Princeton, she spent two years in the Peace Corps in Ivory Coast, got her PhD in Geology, raised a family, and became a rock star of a teacher in Environmental Sciences at University of Toronto. For all who knew and loved her she was a pillar in our lives – calm, methodical, super-organized, creative and caring.

Fortunately, we got to spend time together over the years at Reunions, in Toronto, and even in Auckland, New Zealand. This year, she was scheduled to go on sabbatical and then ease into retirement. We had a lot of annual trips planned. The universe had other plans. Barb was my sister, partner in crime, co-madre and one of my best friends. I am forever indebted to Barb and our friendship.”

College roommate Nancy Sills reminisced, “I’ve never met anyone with Barb’s warmth, wisdom, humor, openness and open-heartedness. And passion and determination. Not just for her scholarship and her work to preserve our planet, but for every aspect of her life. I still remember in college when she decided to learn to knit and suddenly was making complicated Nordic designs, how she told me that she was going to hike the entire Canadian Bruce trail, all 890 kilometers, how every year she took a group of students to the Galapagos. To be Barb’s friend was to be family, and no matter how much time went by, our conversation picked up as if it had never stopped – usually and mostly about our kids. My last conversation with Barb took place over Whatsapp shortly after she received her diagnosis. She still wanted to hear all the news and see pictures and talk about life. And that’s what we did.”

An obituary was published in The Globe and Mail newspaper: https://www.legacy.com/ca/obituaries/theglobeandmail/name/barbara-murck-obituary?pid=203016149.

The Class officers extend sincere condolences to Barbara’s husband, Jack King, children Eliza and Riley King, and siblings Christian Murck and Carolyn Johnson. The family plans a Celebration of Life in spring of 2023.

Barbara will be remembered at the Princeton University Alumni Service of Remembrance to be held February 25, 2023 at the Chapel, and at the Forty-Seventh Reunion Class Memorial service planned for May 27, 2023. The Princeton Class of 1976 will always hold, in honor and affection, the name of Barbara Winifred Murck.

Undergraduate Class of 1976