Benefield: Sebastopol to his core, former Analy principal Ed Barrett remembered

Doug Gilliam, Ed Barrett’s longtime colleague at Analy High School, had heard a rumor.

This is back in the 1970s and both men were vice principals on campus, but Gilliam was tasked with more disciplinary duties, while Barrett handled more of the administrative tasks.

But when Gilliam got wind of a plan some kids were cooking up to tamper with the graduation stage erected on the football field the night before commencement activities, he vowed to stand guard on campus.

Barrett wouldn’t let Gilliam handle it alone.

“’He said, ‘I’m going with you,’” Gilliam recalled.

It was not technically Barrett’s job, but Gilliam was not only his colleague but his best friend. And the students at Analy were not only Barrett’s students, but his kids to some extent.

So he went, too.

And sure enough, kids showed up.

“They made some noise and I flipped on the lights and they took off and they ran,” Gilliam said.

And Sebastopol being Sebastopol in the ’70s, Gilliam and Barrett knew the police officer who showed up to investigate the ruckus. He was, of course, a former student.

The officer called back a short time later with an update: He had ’em.

“They ran over into Dei’s Dairy and they fell into the sump … where the cow feces is,” Gilliam said.

“He said, ‘Doug, I got ’em, what do you want me to do?’” Gilliam said. “I said, Jim, that’s punishment enough. Let ’em go.’“

“And Ed said, ‘I agree,’” he said.

It wasn’t part of Ed Barrett’s job to help his friend through nighttime student shenanigans, but he always showed up. For his friends, for his kids.

“I’d have to go down at midnight — many times. Ed would be right there by my side to support me,” he said.

Ed Barrett, who graduated from Analy High School only to return a short time later to become a teacher, counselor, vice principal and eventually principal, died May 3 of cancer. He was 86.

‘He’d know them right off the bat’

Sebastopol didn’t have its own hospital when Barrett was born in August of 1935, or surely he would have been born there.

He went to Park Side School, and he graduated from Analy. He was baptized, received his First Communion, was confirmed, married and will be buried through St. Sebastian’s Church in Sebastopol.

Ed Barrett was a man who loved his town and loved his community.

Most sidewalk, storefront and restaurant conversations started with “You a local kid?” said Barrett’s wife of nearly 55 years, Katie.

That is, of course, if he didn’t already recognize the face or the name, which was typically the case.

“That man had the best memory,” Gilliam said. “He’d know them right off the bat.”

Or their brother, or sister or grandparent.

“This is a small town. Everybody knows everything,” Katie Barrett said.

She recalled the time, decades ago, that a new neighbor down the way from their home on High School Road went into labor. The neighbor family had one car, and it was in San Francisco with the expecting woman’s husband that day.

“Ed said, ‘OK, I’ll come right up to get you,’” Katie Barrett remembered.

Ed put the woman’s two small kids in the back seat and the woman in the front. The woman, deep into labor at this point, was in all manner of distress, clutching at Barrett as he drove.

“She was a gorgeous redhead, I may tell you. A gorgeous redhead,” Katie Barrett said, laughing.

By the time Ed Barrett had gotten the woman to the hospital, taken care of her two small children and returned to his place on High School Road, the town was atwitter.

“A lot of Sebastopol knew that there was this redhead hanging onto him,” Katie Barrett said with a laugh. “I heard about it again and again.”

The woman delivered the baby safely.

‘I admired him’

Marty Webb, who joined the staff at Analy in 1971 and eventually became principal there, recalled Barrett as a person who fostered leadership opportunities for his staff.

One of the best bits of advice Barrett gave Webb over the years was this: Don’t run.

“He had the ability in a crisis to be calm, cool and collected,” he said. “He’d say, ‘Marty, never run to something. Some people create more of an incident than it needs to be.’”

“Ed was a true leader. He was well respected by the faculty,” he said.

Agreed, said Doria Trombetta, who was a teacher at Analy for 13 years before moving across the district to be vice principal then co-principal for years at El Molino High.

“He had a real concern for kids and students at all levels,” she said.

And his support for his staff was equally ardent — and forward thinking.

She recalled that in 1981 she had just had her first child and wanted to return to work, albeit part-time at first.

“That was a time when there wasn’t any family leave,” she said. “He really supported the blending of family life and work.”

When Trombetta moved on to leadership roles at El Molino, she recalled Barrett as “a wonderful colleague, a collaborative force.”

“I admired him as a principal,” she said.

Barrett, who returned to Analy as a teacher in 1959, retired as principal in 1992.

‘What the heck’

Barrett’s summers were spent with Katie and their two kids, Michael and Mae.

They made mountains of applesauce from the Gravensteins they grew on the property. He guided his two kids through scouts and sports, and the Barrett home was where their friends came, Katie said.

They camped and they puttered in the garden.

He spent time as a summer deputy on the Russian River. He volunteered at the Gravenstein Apple Fair. He chaperoned dances at the youth center.

“And he was a heckuva bowler,” Katie said.

Barrett went on multiple cross-country driving trips with Katie and friends, but much of his fun was at home, around Sebastopol.

Gilliam said he and Barrett recently had made plans to attend the reunion of Analy’s Class of 1960.

Neither had ever attended a class reunion before, not because they didn’t love the kids or want to reconnect, but for more practical reasons. With all their combined years of school service, their summers would have been filled with name tags and meet-and-greets if they had.

But, perhaps because of Barrett’s declining health, the pair made plans to go to this one, this summer.

“All these kids are going to be over 80,” Gilliam said with a chuckle. “We said, ‘I don’t know, what the heck.’”

About two weeks ago, in their near-daily conversation, Barrett told Gilliam he didn’t think he was up to going. With that, Gilliam thought he’d bow out, too.

But since Barrett died on May 3, he has reconsidered.

“In his honor, I probably will go,” he said.

The reunion is Saturday.

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.