Monday Profile:Barney Stucker

You never know where life will take you.

Four decades ago, Barney Stucker was a student at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was studying English literature, playing a little guitar and abusing drugs and alcohol.

Today, Stucker is a prevention specialist with the Flathead Valley Chemical Dependency Clinic in Kalispell.

He plays dobro with local band Blue Smoke and has been in drug and alcohol recovery for 18 years. His professional experiences have ranged from semi-professional musician to ski-lift operator to laser electro-optics technologist for a government laboratory to clinical psychologist.

It's been a journey Stucker never could have foreseen.

"I hadn't planned to do this," he said. "These things came up in front of me, and I said, 'I'll try it to see if I like it.'"

He was born and raised in Carlsbad, Calif. After graduating from high school in 1967, Stucker went to college at the University of Colorado, intending to study English literature and be the first in his family to earn a college degree.

But after a few years, he dropped out and "knocked around" for a few years, working odd jobs, playing the guitar and skiing.

He discovered a love for making things after a stint at a high-end guitar factory. His parents, hoping he'd do what they hadn't and finish college, had never encouraged him to work with his hands, he said.

Stucker's newfound love for creating things led to work as a machinist. He ended up back in California, working for the Mare Island Naval Shipyard near San Francisco.

In 1982, he took a job as a mechanical engineer technician at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy lab in Livermore, Calif. He eventually became a laser electro-optics technologist, using lasers to separate radioactive isotopes for use in weapons and power plants.

The work was fascinating, but Stucker knew job opportunities in that career field were limited to urban areas. He preferred rural living, so he decided to pursue a more "portable" career that he could take with him anywhere.

In 1991, he went back to college, intending to work with adults who were recovering from substance abuse. At that time, he had been in drug and alcohol recovery for a year.

He had started using drugs in the late '60s, when experimentation was the norm.

"I graduated from high school in 1967," he said, trying to explain why he'd started using.

Drugs were rampant at the University of Colorado, "which is as crazy as Berkeley without the politics," he added. "And I was a musician, so I was running with that crowd, too."

Eventually he added drinking to his repertoire. The drugs and booze followed him for decades until finally, in 1990, he went into recovery.

"Life got too bad," he said. "It wasn't fun any more."

Despite wanting to work with fellow recovering substance abusers, Stucker said he initially was a little leery about pursuing a degree in clinical psychology.

"I took psychology when I was like 19, and I absolutely hated it," he said. "When I went back to school, I said, OK, I'll try this. At least it will get me off my butt and back to school."

He enjoyed his second stab at psychology much more than he had as a teenager.

Stucker's career plans changed during his college practicum. All psychology students had to work with people of all ages, he said, and even though he thought he wanted to work with adults after graduation, he signed up to do his initial practicum working with children and adolescents.

"I was going to have to do it anyway," he said.

It was a decision that changed his life.

"I really enjoyed working with the kids," he said. "You see, when they get to about 12, a sense of the newness of the world. It's during adolescence you're figuring out, 'Who am I?' and 'How do I fit into this whole thing?'"

Working with kids was just fun, he added.

"When I'd go to work, I'd wear Levis and a comfortable shirt, because I'm on the floor playing with them," he said. "I did a lot of puppet work. I just liked the playfulness of it."

After graduating with a master's degree from John F. Kennedy University in 1997, Stucker and his wife, Marsha Arbogast, went to work for a nonprofit therapy organization in the Bay Area. Stucker also continued to work part time at the lab until 1999.

He and Arbogast helped open a branch of the nonprofit office near their home. More and more people, many of whom needed counseling services, were moving to the area. It began to feel too crowded for both of them, and they began looking for a more rural place to live.

"We realized we're not going to be happy here in a little while," Stucker said.

He wanted to return to Colorado, but Arbogast didn't share his love for the mountains. They were on their way home from a vacation in Waterton Lakes National Park when a friend suggested they drive down the east shore of Flathead Lake.

"My wife was looking out the window, and she said, 'You know, I could live here,'" Stucker said. "I asked her, 'Are you sure?'"

She was sure, and they began planning to move to the Flathead. They purchased property in Bigfork in 1999 but didn't expect to relocate there until 2003, after Hillary, Stucker's daughter from a previous marriage, graduated from high school.

But in 2000, Arbogast was fed up with planning her life around rush-hour traffic, Stucker said. He realized he could fly Hillary to Montana for visits and was ready for a quieter life. In 2001, they moved to the Flathead and opened their own therapy service, Raven Counseling.

Later that year, Stucker took a part-time job as an adolescent therapist at Pathways. In January 2003, he began his current job at the Flathead Valley Chemical Dependency Clinic.

It's a job that allows him to do a variety of things, everything from data analysis to making presentations to drug testing-related training. Moreover, it's a job Stucker believes is valuable.

"I'm also a firm believer that if we can make an impact on our kids' drinking and drug use, it's a good thing," he said.

To further deter youths' substance abuse, Stucker helped found the STOP Underage Drinking in the Flathead Coalition. Three years ago, he and two others decided the valley needed an organization to focus on the problem of underage drinking.

Montana has some of the highest numbers in the country in binge drinking among 12- to 17-year-olds, Stucker said.

"This is not a good, 'We're No. 1,'" he said. "You don't want the foam finger for that."

"Kids are drinking more," he added. "They're drinking more often. They're more likely to drink hard liquor."

He compared the coalition's work to the country's anti-smoking campaign, which gradually changed the public's attitude toward tobacco.

"Thirty years ago, smoking was everywhere," he said. "They changed the entire environment to where this isn't acceptable. … "This is what we're trying to do with the whole issue of underage drinking."

He plans to stay involved with the coalition even after he someday retires from the clinic. Otherwise, Stucker said, he doesn't know what the future holds.

He'll stay at the clinic as long as he enjoys the work. He may go back to working with his wife. And just as he has been all his life, Stucker is open to a new adventure.

"You don't say, 'Naw, I don't really want to do that,'" he said. "You check it out and see if you like it."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.