by Charles Barker, Mazama Lodge Manager
My mother passed away in mid-December. Loss is difficult, but I have so much to be thankful for. My mother sought to expose my siblings and me to many rich life experiences, and so many of them relate to the Mazamas. Her parents, Gerald and Betty Moore, were part of a close-knit Mazama group that formed lifelong friendships in the 1920s and 30s and enriched my own family’s life. They met on a 1920s Mazama hike around Mount St. Helens.
Katie Moore Barker followed her mother and grandmother in climbing Mt. Hood. She also climbed Mount. St. Helens before and after its eruption. My sister and I have climbed mountains to earn Mazama membership, as have our children.
My mother joined the Mazamas in 1953 and was part of the Oberteuffer Mazama Youth Group throughout her high school years. Mazama Lodge was a second home to hundreds of young adults in those days, and the Oberteuffers were like second parents to hundreds of young Mazamas over the years.
Some veteran members still call our present-day lodge the “New Lodge,” even though it’s 57 years old. When a fundraiser was started to rebuild this lodge in the 1950s, Katie was in her second year of teaching at West Linn High School, and even on her teacher’s salary, she was happy to contribute financially to its construction.
In the late 1970s, she introduced me to Mazama Lodge, and I quickly joined the Mazama Explorer Post that Keith Mischke led. Katie served on the Lodge Committee in the mid-1990s, and during that time, she helped enable a group of foster families to use the lodge. We have shared many wonderful times at the lodge, including Thanksgivings, cookie decorating, folk dancing, and many New Year’s Eve celebrations, as well as using the lodge as home base for countless hikes and cross-country ski trips.
As a final thank you to the Mazamas, Katie bequeathed $13,000 in memory of her late parents, Gerald E. Moore and Elizabeth London Moore, whose love for the Mazamas lives on through the generations.
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