KELSEYVILLE — When former Taylor Observatory-Norton Planetarium coordinator Barbara McIntyre first heard of her future employer, she and her husband went looking for it.
“We drove straight to the top of the mountain,” she said. “Because we thought an observatory would be at the top.”
On Jan. 31, after half a decade, McIntyre has retired from her position as the coordinator for the Taylor Observatory.
It all began because of her husband, Edward Giannelli, according to McIntyre.
“He studied astronomy in college ? it was his love of the stars that got me involved,” she said.
McIntyre, a former chemical engineer, began volunteering at the observatory in 2007, and became a docent in 2008.
A year later, she was asked to take over.
“A few months became five years,” McIntyre said.
In those five years, McIntyre has helped the observatory expand into a science center.
“In the beginning we were just having public events and a few field trips,” she said.
Now the observatory has a new projection system in the planetarium, with a portfolio of shows for audiences of all ages, McIntyre said.
The observatory also offers workshops, robotics classes and summer camp, she continued.
“It”s not just an observatory, it”s a science center now,” McIntyre said. “We”ve added science and engineering.”
It is all that work that made McIntyre decide it was time to retire.
“It has been a joy ? I just got wore out,” she said.
But her contributions aren”t ending with retirement.
“I”m more of a behind-the-scenes person, which is what I”m going to be doing now,” she said.
“They told me I can”t leave because I”ve been involved for so long,” she continued.
McIntyre says she couldn”t have done it alone. Her husband, Taylor Observatory-Norton Planetarium Assistant Janis Traub and the community were all key players.
“They have been enormously helpful,” she said. “They had the passion that kept me going.”
Other than helping behind the scenes at the observatory, McIntyre plans to spend her newly acquired free time with her family.
“I already did a lot of travelling for work,” she said. “I”ve walked the Great Wall of China and stood next to the statue of Jesus in Brazil.”
“I never did get to Hawaii, so I might do that,” she added.
J. W. Burch, IV is a staff reporter for Lake County Publishing. Reach him at 263-5636 ext. 39 or at jburch@record-bee.com.
