Obituary of Barry Bedford Eiland

Barry Bedford Eiland December 19, 1946 - January 07, 2014 On January 7, 2014, Barry Bedford Eiland passed away peacefully in Houston, Texas, after a lengthy battle with a degenerative brain disease. Arrangements for a memorial service are pending. Barry was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, on December 19, 1946 to Doris Palmer Eiland and B.B. Eiland. Barry grew up in Shreveport, graduating from C.E. Byrd High School in 1964. He graduated from Louisiana Tech in 1968 with a B.S. in Mathematics. After graduation, Barry married Marilyn Givens, also of Shreveport. The couple moved to Houston pursuing his desire to work with NASA in the space program. He worked for TRW and then IBM in support of the Apollo program and the space shuttle. He later worked in IBM’s consulting and project management group, retiring from IBM in 2006. Barry’s life for 60 years was full. He was blessed with many friends and a quick wit. He loved golf, music, dancing, travel, hiking and backpacking. At the age of twelve he won the Shreveport Junior Golf Championship. As a young man, Barry was a scratch golfer and carried a single digit handicap into retirement. As a teenager, he once snuck into a James Brown concert in Shreveport, ignoring the racial division of the times, and ended the evening shaking the performer’s hand. In addition, Barry’s voice is found on one track of a Residents album. Barry enjoyed so many treks with his friends into many of the mountain ranges in America. Among many outdoor adventures, he and Marilyn shot the rapids through the Grand Canyon and packed into the Smokey Mountains for days. His library was filled with every kind of music and with photographs of his trips with Marilyn and friends at home and abroad. Barry is survived by his wife Marilyn, brother, Palmer Eiland of Fayetteville, Arkansas, brother-in-law Tim Givens and his wife Lynne of Shreveport, sister-in-law Carol Givens Hamilton of Webster, and three nephews. The family wishes to acknowledge the tireless and caring support provided to Barry by Lathy Jetton, his caregiver for five years. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration or to the charity of your choice.