Dick and Barbara today at their home in Vero Beach. Among their major interests are the Museum of Art, Riverside Theatre, Indian River Medical Center, Homeless Services Council and Children’s Home Society.
Theirs is a story of finding the love of your life, sharing a great marriage, raising five extraordinary children, and stepping forth as generous philanthropists—a testimony to the strength of a powerful partnership to handle life’s sudden changes.
Born in Ann Arbor, Mich., Richard A. “Dick” Stark grew up in Indianapolis where his father was a lawyer and judge. Around that time, a young lady named Barbara Jones also called Indianapolis home.
“We were high school sweethearts,” recalls Dick. “She was a year behind me. I was editor of a daily newspaper and she was a writer on my staff.” In a typical rejoinder, Barbara adds, “The next year I became editor.”
Dick went on to DePauw University and the following year Barbara joined him, graduating at age 20 with a Phi Beta Kappa. “We thought we were going to go on through school,” Dick says, “Then I would go to law school and then we would get married. But suddenly everything changed.”
The year was 1941 and Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. “It turned our world upside down,” says Barbara.
Dick enlisted in the Navy but was permitted to finish college before going on active duty. By 1943, he had finished undergraduate school plus two years of law school. He was assigned to the Columbia University for Midshipman School in New York City before being recruited for a one-year program at Harvard Business School to become a Supply Corps officer. “Finally in 1944 I got my commission,” he says, “and we got married.”
Read the entire article in the September 2007 issue
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