Mary Talbot Westergaard

Mary Talbot Westergaard, Rachel's first child, grew up in Urbana and moved with her parents to Belmont, Mass., when she was still in elementary school. "There is a problem in New England about being slow to assimilate people into a social group," Mary found. "I don't think it's as hard for children as it is for adults. I think my mother noticed it; it probably took her ten or fifteen years, although eventually it worked. The prestige of Harvard didn't hurt! For me it was a very fine place to grow up, particularly as a young adult, because there were many, many things to do, lots of people to meet -- you could always find someone with whom you were compatible."

Although she considered the family tradition of attending Radcliffe, she applied instead to Swarthmore and graduated with her bachelor's in chemistry in 1948. For two years she worked as a research assistant at MIT, where she met Hubert Lloyd Barnes, an MIT geology student. In 1950 she and Hu were married; they moved to Silver City, N.M., where Hu got a job as a mining engineer. Although Mary had a degree in chemistry, "nobody would hire me. They would not hire women to do chemical work in a mining environment. They just wouldn't do it. I worked for a Ford dealership doing 'gofer' work."

After two years in New Mexico, Hu and Mary moved to New York City. In 1952, Hu began doctoral studies on the geochemistry of ore deposits at Columbia while Mary began physical chemistry studies of insulating oils at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J. In 1956, Hu finished the work for his doctorate in geology and joined the Carnegie Institute in Washington, D.C., writing up his thesis and staying on as a postdoc. Mary took a position with the National Bureau of Standards, working on the chemical design of components used in vacuum tubes.

By 1960, Hu was ready to take a permanent position. When Mary discussed her imminent move with her boss at NBS, "he told me, 'You're not going to be happy until you know more about what you're working with.' And he said, 'I'll write you a recommendation.' And so when Hu was invited to interview at Penn State I made arrangements to talk to the chemistry department."

While raising two young children, Mary pursued her doctorate in chemistry at Penn State. Thanks to some "very understanding" professors at Penn State, she says, she was able to complete her doctorate in 1966. By that time, Hu was eligible for a sabbatical, and for a year (1966 67), Hu and Mary Barnes were in Germany with their children. Mary had a fellowship at the Max Planck Institute during her stay.

Not long after Mary returned to Penn State, her supervisor, Vladimir Vand, died, and the research focus shifted into a different area. Mary stopped working for a while. "I didn't go back until 1977 when they began to worry about nuclear waste disposal. There began to be people who were looking for people to work on research projects."

She is still a post-doctoral research associate at Penn State, specializing in the chemistry of cement and concrete. She claims that her area of research has nothing to do with her grandfather's penchant for engineering. "I t was purely accidental. I specialized in inorganic physical chemistry, and the opportunity came along to apply what I knew to cement and concrete."

Mary's husband, Hubert Lloyd Barnes, now holds the position of Distinguished Professor of Geochemistry at Penn State. Mary and Hu reside in State College, Pa.

Mary and Hu have two children: Roy Malcolm Barnes and Catherine Patricia Barnes-Engle. Roy was born in 1951 while Hu and Mary were working in New Mexico. Roy did his undergraduate work at Penn State in physics and his master's work at Colorado State in meteorology. Since 1985 he has been an atmospheric scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. He and his wife Susan Joy (Nygaard) have two young daughters, Lacey Joy and Lindsey Kate.

Catherine was born in 1959 during the Barnes' years in Washington. She started at Penn State in music, then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and finished her bachelor's in music at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is now taking courses at Indiana University in biology and organic chemistry, with the idea of going into veterinary science. In 1992 she married Nathan. Engle, who is a computer technologist at Indiana University. Cathy and Nate have no children.