Barker, Jim.  Born 3/23/47.  Died 6/16/26.  
Dr. Jim Barker took final leave of his family, friends, colleagues, and many devoted patients n Sioux Falls, SD. Jim was born in Duluth, Minnesota, to Dr. John D. and Pearl (Oberg) Barker.

Jim grew up in Morgan Park, an area of Duluth that included the steel mill. As a boy, his dad, also a physician, would sometimes take Jim on house calls with him. In Morgan Park, a house call from Dr. Barker and Jim was often an occasion. After examining the patient in question, Jim and his father would sit with the patient’s family around a kitchen table with a pot of fresh coffee and freshly baked treats while exchanging community news and jokes. (Sometimes other adult beverages were included.)  And so, from an early age, Jim was drawn deep into the heart of Morgan Park’s tightly-knit community, where patients took any opportunity to express their gratitude to Dr. Barker Sr. for his steadfast, highly-personalized care and dedication. These were the same prized qualities Jim, himself, would carry on into his own practice of internal medicine and would become the source of his own patients’ devotion.  

Following graduation from Duluth’s Denfeld High School in 1965, Jim entered Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, and majored in chemistry. He graduated in June, 1969.  Before entering medical school, he received a Master’s Degree in Limnology from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where his lifelong passion for social justice in its many forms began.  

In 1972, Jim entered the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, graduating in 1976, and continued his training as a medical resident in internal medicine at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, including one year as Chief Resident and one year as director of the Outpatient Teaching Clinic.

From 1981 to 2002, Dr. Barker practiced and taught internal medicine in Minneapolis and St. Paul, at Hennepin County Medical Center, United Hospital, the Aspen Medical Group, and Health East, among others.

Jim moved to South Dakota in 2002 to become an Academic Associate Professor of internal medicine at the medical school.  During his first eight years in Sioux Falls, Dr. Barker was awarded several Golden Apple teaching awards from the 3rd and 4th year medical students, and the Centennial Teaching Award for Distinguished Service in Medical Education. He volunteered to help establish the Coyote Clinic run by South Dakota medical students.  From its beginning, he helped to staff this weekly evening clinic, during which time he became the Avera McKennan Program Director for the internal medicine residency.

In 2007, Dr. Barker took over the directorship of the Avera McKennan Health Care Clinic for the uninsured.  Jim integrated the residency program with the clinic, greatly expanding both the residents' outpatient training experience and the mission of the clinic to serve not only the uninsured, but also the poor, immigrant, homeless, and medically underserved.

Jim also served as a CASA volunteer and served on the Avera Healthcare Catholic Matrix committee on Solidarity for the Poor.

For these accomplishments, Dr. Barker was the recipient of the 2010 South Dakota Chapter of the American College of Physicians Humanitarian and Volunteerism Award. He was also awarded the Tow 2015 Humanism in Medicine Award in recognition of exemplary compassion, competence, and respect in the delivery of care. And he was a member of the Gold Humanism Honor Society for exemplary service, integrity, clinical excellence, and compassion. His other Awards and Honors are so numerous that listing them here would almost certainly result in reading fatigue.

Dr. Barker fit in frequent house calls and visits to homebound patients. He made sure to make mental notes about his patients’ lives and interests for future conversation. After hours, he would meet his patients in serious distress who had made it as far as the emergency room.

During his long years of medical practice and teaching, Jim valued listening intently, examining thoroughly, thinking clearly, and treating appropriately. His students learned from him to attend to these 4 statements: Show up. Tell the truth. Pay attention. Let go of the outcome.

Before his dementia began in earnest, he never failed to make us laugh. He always had a new hilarious incident to share, many “Dad� jokes, and sometimes his stories turned into convoluted roadmaps, taking us on journeys where the destination was unknown. When he started a story with “In 1972 ...� we knew we were starting on a trip on which we were completely clueless about where we would end up. He digressed so often during the course of a story that he sometimes never got back to the original content.

Jim was also a proud father of Cullen and Larkin. He was always there for his kids – whether it be helping them move into new apartments across state lines, showing pictures of Larkin’s professional successes wherever he went, or haunting Cullen’s favorite coffee shops—Cahoots and The Source—for a life catch-up. Larkin and her husband Nick were particularly fond of his long, handwritten notes that would arrive a few days after a visit that they coined as “Mister Rogers letters� because of their poignant observations and excellent nuggets of life advice. He also loved being “Grandpa Jim� to his grandson, Henry.

Jim was preceded in death by his parents and sister Beth Barker, long-time friends Nancy Whitley and Larry Engelsen, and beloved pets Mickey, Pearl, Winston, Sydney, and granddog Bernie.

Left to remember his intelligence, wit, quirks, devotion, and achingly gentle heart are his wife, Randee Huber; children, Cullen and Larkin Barker; Larkin's husband Nick Barbash; grandson Henry Barbash; brother Jack Barker and his wife Linda; nephew Jacob Barker and his sons Jack and Seaborn; nephew Matt Barker and his wife Rebecca, their children Beatrice and Rhys; and long-time friend Jim Adams. Countless other friends, family members, colleagues, and former patients will remember Jim with affection.

A visitation with family will be held at Miller Funeral Home in downtown Sioux Falls, starting at 2:00 on Saturday, July 11th, with a tribute to Jim at 3:00.

Donations may be made to any compassionate cause or animal rescue group.




Posted By: Administrator - 06-20-2026
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