Harlan N Barton Jr.

Harlan Newton Barton, Jr. died Dec. 6, 2015 in Boulder, Colo. surrounded by his family. He was 86. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 23 at First United Methodist Church, 1421 Spruce St., Boulder. Burial will be held at Arlington National Cemetery. Harlan was devoted to his family and grandchildren. He embraced life with unceasing zest, exploring the world's most rugged mountains. Even cancer couldn't stop him; he'd go for treatment in Denver, then pack up the next day for a new adventure. As Jeff Wallace, his doctor of 17 years, put it, "Every day he spent on earth he was doing the most he could, all the time." He was born on Dec. 11, 1928 in a boxcar converted to Union Pacific Railroad employee housing in Wallace, Kan. to Harlan and Florence White Barton. The family moved wherever the railroad needed his father to go before settling in Collyer, Kan. for many years, and eventually moved to Sterling, Colo. Harlan graduated from Sterling High School and earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. He served with distinction in the U.S. Army, earning a Bronze Star as a combat platoon officer in Korea with the 45th Infantry and 7th Republic of Korea divisions. After he completed training as a second lieutenant with the Army's field artillery branch at Ft. Sill, Okla. in 1952, he was assigned to the 13th AAA gun battalion to protect Chicago's Midway Airport. But he wanted to go to Korea, and after seeking help from U.S. Sen. Edwin C. Johnson, he was transferred to the Far East Command. Following the war he served for 20 years in the Army Reserve, taught artillery and retired as a lieutenant colonel. He met his first wife, Norma Jean Harder of Iowa, while traveling through Manitou Springs in a 1948 Ford Coupe. They married on Oct. 25, 1952, shortly before he shipped out for Korea, and had three sons. They later divorced. Harlan lived in Boulder for most of his life, working as a chemist for Dow Chemical at the Rocky Flats plant for 19 years, followed by 17 years with the U.S. Geological Survey. He loved the Rocky Mountains and was a long-time member of the Colorado Mountain Club, Rocky Mountain Rescue and the American Alpine Association. He climbed all Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks and completed the 486-mile Colorado Trail from Denver to Durango. He was an avid wilderness photographer, winning best in show for CMC's fine-art exhibit in 2006, and wrote two editions of "Peak to Peak Ski Trails of the Colorado Front Range." In 1977, Harlan met Judith Abbott Harris at a CMC Oktoberfest celebration. Judy had moved to Boulder from Alabama to attend graduate school at the University of Colorado. They married on Dec. 18, 1983. Harlan loved travel and adventure, but was never one to stay in a Hilton. With Judy or on his own, he traveled to some of the most wild and remote mountains throughout the world including Pakistan, Nepal and Patagonia. He took extended ocean expeditions on converted Russian transport ships from Gibraltar to Argentina and the South Pacific. He loved trains, and he and Judy traveled to the four corners of America by Amtrak. Harlan is survived by his wife Judy of Boulder; two sons, Mark Barton and his wife Katja Blomenkamp of Calgary, Canada, and Scott Barton and his wife Laura of Boulder; three grandchildren, Andy Barton and his wife Marianne, Casey Barton and Wesley Barton; a stepson, Jeffrey Harris of Fort Collins; and a stepdaughter, Jennifer Sullivan and her husband Joe, and their children, Declan, Leah and Maggie Shae, all of Fort Collins; and a sister, Leona Patton of Loveland. He was preceded in death by his parents; his former wife Jean, in July 1994; and a son, Guy Thomas Barton, in March 2010. Contributions; First United Methodist Church of Boulder (fumcboulder.org), Colorado Mountain Club (cmc.org) or Rocky Mountain Rescue (rockymountainrescue.org).