Barbara Joan Taylor Cragg, 87

Barbara Joan Taylor Cragg died peacefully of natural causes in Missoula on Sept. 10, 2020. She was 87 years old.

Barbara was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1933, the daughter of Carol Taylor and Melvin Bluhm. She was adopted by her loving maternal grandparents, Harvey and Ethel Taylor, whom she considered “salt of the earth” people, and grew up on the family farm near Massie, Ontario. As the youngest child she was both doted on and allowed a great deal of freedom. She spent her days helping on the farm, swimming, playing hockey, reading voraciously, and playing piano (when she wasn’t nursing a broken arm). She attended the one room school in Massie and later boarded in Owen Sound, Ontario, for her high school years. She loved writing, despaired of French, and was mediocre in math subjects. Her career dream was to become an international correspondent for a newspaper.

A blind date introduced Barbara to a promising young man and her life took a different direction. She married at age 19 and soon had her first child. She completed a one-year teaching certification and, for a few years, taught music to help support her husband, Clinton Cragg, while he attained a medical degree in Montreal. The family expanded with another daughter, just before Barbara and family emigrated to the United States. Settling in the Cleveland, Ohio, area, she shifted her focus to being a homemaker, emulating the 1950s ideal of women: neighborhood coffee klatches, Tupperware parties, three home cooked meals a day, a spotless household, and another baby. What she really wanted was to go to University.

In the mid-1960s, having the option to live almost anywhere, the family chose Missoula, which Barbara said was the best decision they ever made. Barbara loved Missoula and the Rocky Mountain West. Always busy with children and homemaking, she tried out several more avenues for personal satisfaction. She kept a huge vegetable garden, went fly fishing, decorated the first house they ever owned, and sang with the Symphony Chorale. She gave the “doctor's wife” social role a twirl and quickly decided it was not a good fit for her. She attended theater and music events, joining the standing ovations for every performer who made the effort to get to Missoula. She fostered friendships with a few dear friends and maintained connections to her family in Ontario. Weekly trips to the library fed her need for adventure and escape. Another baby joined the family.

After a decade of upward mobility and emerging financial security, a tragic turn changed Barbara’s life. Her husband died young and she was left with all the responsibilities of home and family. Both cultural and personal changes catapulted her into unfamiliar territory and she took on the challenges with determination. She became a nontraditional student at the University of Montana and discovered a passion for geography, travel and teaching that became the hallmark of the rest of her life. While being a full-time student and single parent, she maintained the family home and found time to travel to Mexico, the Southwest, California, Oregon, Canada, and all through Montana, exploring and learning the geography of places new or familiar. She enthusiastically continued her education to earn a Ph.D. in geography at the University of Oregon.

At an age when many women are in the prime of their profession, Barbara entered the workforce as a professor of geography and environmental studies at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This began a 15-year career that she recalled as the best years of her life. She taught a wide variety of classes, published academic papers, organized fantastic field trips, and took sabbatical time to study in Australia (she climbed Ayers Rock!), New Zealand, Java, the Canadian Maritime Provinces, and the Pacific Northwest. She created lasting relationships with students, colleagues and mentors. She also became a dedicated Detroit Red Wings Fan. With her hard earned income, she generously supported education and travel opportunities for her children and grandchildren, promoting two of her most valued life goals.

Barbara retired to Missoula in 2000, to be closer to her children and grandchildren. She became an active member of the Unitarian Fellowship where she played piano for many years and enjoyed the lively community. She volunteered at the Missoula Food Bank, the Natural History Museum, and Careforce in the Dominican Republic. She drove the AlCan highway one summer, and continued to make road trips to Michigan and Ontario in her little red RAV4 to visit family and friends, until the mental decline of Alzheimer's disease ended her traveling days.

She loved her family and a few close friends, and she considered each day spent on this lovely earth as a gift. She lived a full and generous life.

Barbara is survived by her daughters: Debra Taylor-Cragg, Colette Magers (Dan), Crystal Nelson (Scott) and Bonnie Taylor (Sergio Castro); her grandchildren, Abigail Carey (Brian), Malcolm Stevens, Daniel Stevens, Karli Mason (Hamilton), Kyle Halttunen, and Charles Castro; and great-grandchild, Sebastian Carey.

She was preceded in death by her husband Clinton Cragg, grandson Brendan, her parents, and several siblings.

Cremation has taken place and no public memorial is planned. Should you like to celebrate Barbara’s life and how it touched yours, find a moment to listen to Beethoven, read a poem, walk in nature and feel your feet solid on the ground, enjoy a toasted tomato sandwich, or snuggle with your pet. Consider a donation in her memory to the University of Montana Excellence Fund/Geography Dept., Five Valleys Land Trust, or the Humane Society.