Deceased May 2, 2001
View alumni profile (log-in required)
Read obituary
In Memory
Barry Couper died May 2 in his home in Montague, Mass., at the age of 51. He was born on Sept. 28, 1949, to Richard W. Couper and Patricia (Pogue) Couper in Binghamton, N.Y. He attended Clinton Central High School, where he graduated in 1967 as the salutatorian. He then entered Amherst and graduated in the Class of 1971.
After College, Barry joined a communal household at Bartlett Farm, in Montague Center, where several other Amherst graduates also resided. He worked occasionally as a mason’s tender, and then, because his passion was classical piano music, he decided to enroll in the North Bennett Street Industrial School in Boston, where he learned piano technology. When the Bartlett Farm commune dissolved in 1978, Barry bought the property and continued to live there. He had a lengthy career rebuilding and tuning pianos and was active in the Piano Technicians Guild.
He is survived by his parents, his two brothers, Thomas H. Couper and Frederick P. Couper, and his sister Margaret Couper Haskins. The Class extends its sympathy to them all.