Barry Kazmer

March 9, 1947 - October, 2023

Barry was born on March 9, 1947 to Frank W. Kazmer and Valerie Reid (Yeaton) Kamer in Framingham, Massachusetts.  He passed away in October of 2023.  Barry grew up in a military family and had already moved about ten times, including Okinawa, before he reached Costa Mesa to attend E.A. Rea School, just a few blocks from his latest home. He was very happy with this last move and went on to attend Costa Mesa High School.  There he met many lifetime friends and got his first camera.  Photography became a lifetime hobby for Barry. 

In his sophmore year, his family moved again, and he started at Corona del Mar High School.  But, after half of a year there, they moved back to Costa Mesa, and Barry returned to Costa Mesa High School and his many friends again.  They did lots of things together from watching the Friday night horror movie on TV to going up to Pacific Ocean Park to enjoy the roller coaster and other rides.  Barry built a high jump pit in the back yard to practice with his friends and was active on the Costa Mesa High School track team. 

Barry joined the Army at age 17 in October of 1964 while still attending high school. He went to meetings on nights and weekends at the El Toro LTA Base during his senior year.  Barry got married her last day of high school at the Orange County (Santa Ana) Courthouse.  After graduating, he went to Fort Ord for basic training and from there went on to Light Weapons Infantry training.  When he returned from leave, he learned his new unit had been disbanded. He then joined the California Air National Guard.

After taking some courses at Orange Coast College, Barry went to California State University at Fullerton where he took anthropology courses for his minor and lots of biology and education courses.  After a brief time back in Massachusetts, he next ended up at Saint Cloud State University in Minnesota.  There he got his master’s degree and discovered he loved to teach.  He stayed at Saint Cloud University and taught biology labs and wrote science guidebooks for local schools, He considered going for his PhD but after have a heart attack on May 20, 1999 and triple bypass surgery later that day, he decided he was happy with his current status.  Barry was a teacher at St. Clloud University for 26 years.

Phtography remained a hobby of Barry's and he left a Flicker site with hundreds of his photos:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/49689796@N00/albums     A couple albums you might want to check out are Costa Mesa High School and Garage and Surf Bands. 

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There was not an obituary for Barry Kazmer, so I decided to search the interenet and try to put smething together.  If you have any corrections or things that should be added, please use Contact Us to send them to me.  Or feel free to add aditional information in the comments below.    Larry Motschenbacher