Judy Barkley

Judith Carol Barkley received her B.A. in English from Phillips University (Enid, Oklahoma) in 1962 then taught English for one year at an Iowa junior high school. During that year, Barkley realized she belonged in a graduate studies program at Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth, where completed her thesis research on the writings of John Steinbeck before earning Master’s degree in 1965.

While she was still completing her graduate program, however, Barkley received an offer of hire from Grossmont Junior College's English Department and moved to San Diego to take the job, where she remained for the next thirty-four years and served as one of the original members of its Creative Writing program. Like all English instructors, Barkley taught several levels of composition classes, but she occasionally lead courses such as Masterpieces of the Short Story, Essentials of Literature, Masterpieces of Poetry, and Images of Women In Literature.

In the mid 1990's, Barkley temporarily reduced her teaching load so that she could apply more time to earn her second master’s degree in Counseling. As her best friend, Susie Millet, writes in her eulogy for Judy, “Never one to stop broadening her horizons, Judy continued to pursue her own personal educational interests through additional college course work and eventually received a Master’s Degree in Counseling from San Diego State University.” Barkley completed that degree sometime around 1995.

This was also when Judy taught her first semester of a subject that would become her signature course: English 134: Non-Fiction Article Writing (Creative Nonfiction). Barkley’s article writing class, a four-semester sequence of repeatable workshops, was a popular course that for the first time on the Grossmont College campus recognized travel narratives and memoirs as a legitimately creative genre. The course evolved into the Creative Writing Program’s current Creative Nonfiction Writing course, as popular today as it was twenty years ago. However, Judy Barkley is also remembered for overseeing the final years of the Cowles Mountain Journal, a counterpart to Verena Anderson's Firstdraft started by Dick Lantz in 1987 that opened submissions to California community college's faculty and staff. Throughout the 1990's, the journal was edited and produced by Lantz and Barkley under the downswing of a budget-cutting axe that eventually caused it to cease production altogether in 1997.

Judy retired two years later, in 1999. In her retiring life, she kept socially active, supported local playhouses, traveled, enjoyed antiquing, and became passionately involved with a local rescue organization for older cats. Throughout it all, Barkley continued writing poetry and participated in a writer’s group whose membership included retired colleague Dorothy Ledbetter. Barkley also continued to support Grossmont’s Creative Writing Program as a patron of the annual Literary Arts Festival and as a regular sponsor of its fundraising projects.

However, following an appendix operation, Barkley’s suffered a mild stroke at the end of 2001, which was the start of a gradual downturn in her health. Fellow retiree John Barnier was one of those to check in on Judy regularly while she was rehabilitating. Judy showed improvement by summer of 2012, but her health declined again the following year, and on July 7, 2013, she died peacefully at her home in San Carlos. She was 72 years old.

Before she fell ill, Judy had plans for a privately published chapbook of poetry. In fall of 2013, Serving House Journal posthumously published two of her poems.

• With gratitude to Susie Millet and Barb Roper for hosting Judy Barkeley’s memorial gathering at her home on July 12, 2012 and for composing Judy's official newspaper obituary;
• Many thanks to Dr. Oralee Holder, former colleague and long-time friend of Judy Barkley, for guidance with some of the research and content of this bio; and
• A note of appreciation to author T. Greenwood, Year In Ink editor, for contributing information to Judy Barkley's bibliography of published poems.

• Barkley, Judith. John Steinbeck’s Concern with Morality in His Recent Writings. Thesis M.A. Texas Christian University. Ft. Worth, TX, 1965. 

• "Fernie." Cowles Mountain Journal 7 (1996): p46. 
• "How Did the World Sound." A Year in Ink. Volume 5. Eds., Brandon Cesmat and T. Greenwood. San Diego: San Diego Writers, Ink, 2012. p9.
• "Interlude." A Year in Ink. Vol. 5. Eds., Brandon Cesmat and T. Greenwood. San Diego: San Diego Writers, Ink, 2012. p95.
• "The Last Photo." Cowles Mountain Journal 5 (Spring 1992): p40.
• "Lucille Jean.” Serving House Journal 8 (Fall 2013). On-line. 
• "Memory." Cowles Mountain Journal 5 (Spring 1992): p13.
• "Memory." Serving House Journal 8 (Fall 2013). On-line.

• "What I Knew." A Year in Ink. Volume 5. Eds., Brandon Cesmat and T. Greenwood. San Diego: San Diego Writers, Ink, 2012. p57.

• "Barkley, Judith." The Gallery: A 35th Anniversary Photographic Directory of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community Faculty, Administration, and Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, 1996. p16.
• "Barkley, Judith C." Obituary. The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA) 11 July 2013. Web.
• The Gallery, 1974: A Photographic Directory of the Grossmont College Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont Junior College District, 1974. p6.
• "Barkley, Judith Carol." The Gallery, 1970: A Photographic Directory of the Grossmont College Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont Junior College District, 1970. p25.
• _____. The Gallery: A 25th Anniversary Photographic Directory of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community Faculty, Administration, and Staff. El Cajon, CA: Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, 1987. p14. 
• "First GC President, Jack Hansen, Remembered, Celebrated." GCCCD Grapevine 16.3 (November 2006): p1. 
• Phillipian Yearkbook. Phillips University. Enid, OK: Phillipian University, 1959.
• Private Collection (Photographs). Copyright 2012, Barb Roper and Susan Millett.
• "Radio Survey." Feat. Judy Barkley. The G (Grossmont College, El Cajon, CA) 1985 [nd]. np.
• Scanlan, Tom. "Banquet for Retirees a Sellout." GCCCD Grapevine 8.2 (July 1998): p5.

• _____. "Marie James 80th Birthday." GCCCD Grapevine 17.3 (November 2007): p1.
• _____. "Twenty-One to Join Ranks of Retirees." GCCCD Grapevine 9.2 (June 1999): p1.

• Fidelia Dickinson (hired summer 1966, quit by Sep. 1966)
• George M. Peranteau 1966-1968* (terminated)
• Harold Loumeau 1966-1968* (terminated)
• Robert E. Moore 1966-1981 (Chair 1969-1970)
• C. Frank Vittor 1966-1982 (Chair 1970-1972)
• Vesta Penrod Gibbs 1966-1983
• Judith C. Barkley 1966-1999
• Glenn A. Lane, II 1967-1991
• Stanford T. Carlson 1967-1991
• Frederick J. Stollenwerk 1967-1999 (Chair 1972-1974)