Barbara Calmer (1923-1996), Associate Professor of Physical Education at Oberlin College, was born on August 30, 1923 in Sioux City, Iowa to Edward Emanuel Calmer and Bessie Venice Miller. She received a B.Sc. degree from the University of Nebraska in 1945 and an M.A. degree from New York University in 1950. Prior to joining the Oberlin faculty in 1950, she worked as an Instructor of Physical education at Alabama State College for Women (1945-46) and Lake Forest College (1946-50). She retired in 1988. Calmer’s fields of interest included folk and square dancing, outdoor education, and elementary physical education and teacher training.

Calmer took two sabbatical leaves during her 38 years (1950-88) at Oberlin. On the first (1956-57), she traveled to Sweden and England to study with the Scandinavian Seminar for Cultural Studies and the English Folk Dance and Song Society. While there, she observed classes in movement education in the primary schools and taught at the Lillsved Gymnastik Follchogskola. She also worked with handicapped children at the Lucy Idol School in Vermilion, Ohio before returning to Oberlin. On her second sabbatical leave (1963-64), she studied with Dr. Gladys Andrews, an expert on children’s rhythms and movements at New York University.

In addition to working at Oberlin, Calmer was a member of several different organizations. These organizations included the American Association of Heath, Physical Education and Recreation, AAUP, National and Mid-West Association for Physical Education of College Women, and the National Volleyball Rules Guide Committee for the Division of Girls’ and Women’s Sports. She served as chairman of the Teacher Education Section of the Ohio Association for physical Education of College Women, as an honorary national official in basketball for girls, and as a state coordinator of all Ohio Rating Records. In 1991, the Lorain County United Way honored Calmer for her volunteer work with the Lucy Idol Center for the Handicapped, where she designed and managed a swimming program for clients. Barbara Calmer died in Oberlin, Ohio on 1 November 1996.