Stanley Barber

WELLMAN ? Stanley Robert Barber, 91, formerly of Wellman, died Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016, in Oaknoll Retirement Residence in Iowa City, where he had lived for the past nine years.

Celebration of life service will be held at 10:30 a.m., Friday, Jan. 29, at Asbury United Methodist Church in Wellman with the Rev. Moody Colorado officiating. Burial will be in the Wellman Cemetery. Visitation will be from 2 to 7 p.m., Thursday at the Powell Funeral Home in Wellman, where the family will greet friends from 2 to 4 and 5 to 7 p.m. Memorial gifts may be made to Mid-Prairie Foundation, Mercy Hospital Foundation, Oaknoll Foundation, and Hoover Presidential Foundation.

Mr. Barber was born Nov. 3, 1924, in North Platte, Nebraska, the son of Robert and Amanda (Kannow) Barber. He married his high school sweetheart, Corinne Scott, on Jan. 26, 1946.

He lived in western Nebraska, where his father chartered and owned several banks. He was always very proud of the fact that all of his father?s banks reopened immediately after the Bank Holiday in 1933. At the age of 12 he moved to Boone, where he graduated from high school in 1942. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II and trained as a B-24 pilot. After their marriage, he and his wife attended Grinnell College together. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1949, and then earned an MBA from Indiana University. In January 1951 he and his wife moved to Wellman when the Barber family purchased the Wellman Savings Bank. He very much enjoyed more than 40 years in banking and serving the Wellman community. He was a 50-year member of Asbury Methodist Church, and active in community groups in Wellman, including serving as a city councilman and Rotary president. He was active in the Independent Bankers Association of America, representing the nation?s locally owned banks. He served as national president in 1967-68. Appointed by Gov. Robert Ray, he served on the State Board of Public Instruction from 1970 to 1973 and on the State Board of Regents from 1973 to 1979. He also served on the boards of the Hoover Presidential Foundation in West Branch and the Mamie Eisenhower Birthplace Foundation in Boone. He was an adjunct professor at the University of Iowa from 1972-73, teaching money and banking. He and his wife met as lifeguards in high school, and he continued his love for swimming throughout his life. He was a member of his high school and college swim teams and swam in the Iowa Games and the Arizona Senior Olympics in later years. He continued swimming at Oaknoll, and until a year ago was able to participate in aquacize sessions several times a week. He enjoyed entertaining neighborhood children and friends in his backyard swimming pool, and his family was always proud that he did most of the pool maintenance himself.

Surviving are one daughter, Ann Doyle and her significant other, Daniel Collins, of Coralville; one son, Scott and his wife Tonya of Fort Collins, Colorado; and two grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his wife; his parents; one brother; and one son-in-law, Daniel Doyle.