Disease Killed Him, But People Say He Beat It

By YVETTE C. HAMMETT The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jul 10, 2007





RIVERVIEW - Even while lying in a hospital bed at home, unable to move or speak, David Barker held on to his spark, said his wife, Becky, and their close friends.

Just recently, he had neighbor Jovan Hyde playing "Name That Band" as he played audio clips from some of the 1,000 songs on his computer, using his big toe to move the mouse and switch from one song to another.

"He sometimes called me the Jovanator," Hyde said Monday, recalling Barker as a man with a great sense of humor. He was her neighbor for 11 years in the Lakes of Cristina subdivision.

"He had a funny name for just about everyone," his wife interjected.

Barker, 46, bedridden for the past 10 years, died quietly Friday after living with Lou Gehrig's disease for some 15 years. His family and neighbors were standing near his bedside at South Bay Hospital.

The former Boeing avionics technician, born and raised in Jacksonville, left a lasting impression.

"I'll never, ever in my lifetime have another person in my life with that special relationship," next-door neighbor Shelley Grable said Monday. "Knowing him and loving him and being part of his life, it's the trite thing to say 'Don't take life for granted,' but that's what it was about."

Barker was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at age 31, a little more than a year after getting married. The disease is an incurable neurodegenerative illness that eventually paralyzes all the body's muscles.

Barker never lost his sense of humor or his zest, his wife said.

"I've gotten phone calls from so many people who say he touched their lives," Becky Barker said. That included people he never met but who read about the Barkers in The Tampa Tribune in March.

"He always had a way of drawing people in," said Scott Stephens, who served in the Air Force with Barker and remained a good friend. "He had a quick wit."

Barker, a 1979 graduate of Samuel W. Wolfson High School in Jacksonville, served four years in the Air Force at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

He worked for Boeing Co. in California for eight years before moving back to Florida, where he worked for GTE in Tampa.

DAVID CLARK BARKER
BORN: April 15, 1961

DIED: July 6, 2007

SURVIVORS: His wife, Becky; mother and father, John and Christine Barker; and brother, John Glenn Barker

SERVICE: A graveside ceremony is set for 11 a.m. Wednesday at Green Lawn Cemetery, 4300 Beach Blvd., Jacksonville.

Reporter Yvette C. Hammett can be reached at (813) 657-4532 or yhammett@tampatrib.com.