Barry George Schuler

On February 3, 2022, Barry G. Schuler, 89, passed away at the Wyatt House assisted living home on Bainbridge Island. He was with Ruth Schuler, his wife of over 65 years when he passed away.

A funeral for Barry Schuler will be held at 2:00 pm Pacific on Saturday, February 26, 2022, at Port Madison Lutheran Church on Bainbridge Island. Friends and family who cannot attend in person are invited to participate by Zoom accessed through the Port Madison Lutheran Church website.

Barry grew up in Farmington, Minnesota surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. He attended St. Olaf College and the University of Minnesota as an undergraduate and graduate student. He served in the U.S. Army and was stationed in Germany where he met and married Ruth in 1956.

Barry began his career in higher education in 1966 at the founding of Metropolitan State Junior College in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota where he served as the Dean of Students and later the Dean of Instruction. In 1968, he moved his family to Coeur d’Alene Idaho where he was selected to serve as president of North Idaho College. For 18 years, he worked with the board of trustees, legislators, community leaders, faculty, and staff to grow the college, improve the NIC campus and expand the academic program and vocational education opportunities. During that time, NIC added the nursing and law enforcement programs, Hedlund Vocational Center, a Science Building, and the Humanities Building now known as Boswell Hall and the Schuler Center for the Performing Arts. With his leadership, NIC also established a wrestling program that won multiple national championships, and the college played an important role in establishing Art on the Green, the Museum of North Idaho, and in acquiring and preserving the beach that surrounds the college. Schuler completed his career in higher education by serving as president of the Williamson Free School for the Mechanical Arts and Trades in Media, Pennsylvania from 1987 until 1996.

Barry Schuler retired to Bainbridge Island in 1996. He will be remembered around the community as a member of Cross Sound Church and the old guy often seen around the entrance to Chatham Cove condominiums on Weaver Avenue putting up Christmas lights, hanging easter eggs, and gardening in his overalls. He is remembered by his family and many others as a prankster, punster, father, and grandfather who loved to play with kids and share his love of electric trains – especially his renowned ice cream train.

Barry is survived by his wife Ruth, his daughter and son-in-law Heidi and Scott Marotz of Boise, Idaho, his son and daughter-in-law, Galen and Miyoung Schuler of Bainbridge Island, six grandchildren, Chase, Jillian, Hayden, Peter, Jackson, and Thomas, and two great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his sister Glenna Jean and his brother Chester, both of whom live in Arizona.

If you wish to honor the life and work of Barry Schuler, memorial gifts should be directed to the “Barry and Ruth Schuler Scholarship” fund at the North Idaho College Foundation, Inc., 1000 West Garden Avenue, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho 83814.

Arrangements are entrusted to the Cook family Funeral Home of Bainbridge Island, WA.