Robert Elledge Barber

An emergency call comes through on the scanner - it is a house fire spreading quickly. Ten seconds go by, twenty, then thirty seconds more with no response. Dispatch again crackles through with more urgency asking for aid.

Then a third time the afternoon peace is broken by the call for help from dispatch. No one has answered.

“Can I go?” an anxious Robert Elledge Barber asks his only son, Doug.

Doug looks at the hopeful pleading in his father’s eyes and considers that this man has run into flames and smoke for nearly fifty years working to save lives and protect the firefighters in his community and across the state.

Robert was scheduled for risky cardiac surgery the very next day, but at this moment he isn’t thinking about himself. His concern was that someone needs help now and he can answer the call.

Finally, Doug, filled with pride says, “Sure, Dad, but I am going with you.”

That was the summer of 2019. Robert passed away on June 21, 2025, at the Veterans Administration Hospice Center in Albuquerque, NM.

Robert Barber was born on April 19, 1944, to Robert Luther Barber and Mabel Eloise Elledge. He lived an imperfect life of 81 years in service to others, always quick with wit and slow to anger yet his patience and sense of duty knew no bounds.

He graduated from Madison Highschool and joined the Navy in 1962 serving aboard the USS Lynde McCormick during the Vietnam War. He was an honorable member of the National Guard until retiring in 2003. He was also a valiant servant to his community as a member of Madison Fire Company #5, the Clifty 6 Volunteer Fire Company, Jefferson Proving Ground Fire Department and the Shawswick Volunteer Fire Department.

He was honored in 2019 for fifty years of distinguished service as an EMT and Firefighter in the state of Indiana and planned to retire to pursue his already award-winning nature photography hobby in the high desert of New Mexico where his son resides. Unfortunately, cancer took him too soon.

Robert is survived by his spouse Darlynn S. Barber, son Douglas, daughter-in-law Kerri, grandson Michael Harris, brother Jim Barber, sister Judy Hoffman and more friends and admiring colleagues than is fair for one man to have.

Robert was finally called to rest by the only One who could convince him to do so. We are blessed for having witnessed his patience and sense of duty.

Memorial Service, 10AM, Saturday, August 2, 2025, at Riverside Funeral Home Chapel, 225 San Mateo Boulevard NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108

Inurnment, will be at Indiana Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Madison, Indiana.