Kathleen L. Barber Interview 20 June 2006

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Kathleen Barber of the Shaker Lakes Nature Center describes her involvement with the Center beginning with the battle to protect Shaker Lakes from highway development in the 1960s. Barber describes this activist campaign in great detail, discussing the proposed route of the highway, the role of County Commissioner Albert Porter, the strategies employed to stop the highway, and the parts played by numerous individuals and activists - particularly women, whose role, according to Barber, was very much related to their role in the greater U.S. society. Barber used this activist experience to move forward as an instructor at John Carrol University, a Shaker Heights City Councilperson, and a member of numerous volunteer and non-profit organizations. Additional topics include regional government (regionalism), state and local politics, and cooperative arrangements between inner ring suburbs as a means to combat urban sprawl. Also mentioned are the Kingsbury Run Murders of the 1930s, during which several bodies are said to have been dumped at Shaker Lakes' Southerly Park.

Participants: Barber, Kathleen L. (interviewee) / Smith, Nancy King (interviewer) / Eakin, Martha (interviewer)
Collection: Shaker Lakes Nature Center
Institutional Repository: Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection

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Shaker Lakes Nature Center

17 Interviews

The Shaker Lakes Nature Center Oral History Project was initiated by Nature Center founding member Nancy King Smith, with interviews by researchers, students, and public school teachers in collaboration with the Center. Interviews cover a variety of topics relating to the creation of Shaker Lakes and the Nature Center, as well as to the broader issues in wildlife preservation and environmental education. Although the Shaker Lakes were man-made (serving as a major part of the development of…

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