MINEAH

Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Friday, August 25, 2006 at 05:24:49 :

San Francisco Chronicle
Saturday, February 16, 2002
A25

Barry Mineah
by Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer

A memorial service was held Tuesday in Belvedere for Barry Mineah, a teacher, actor and the founder and longtime head of the performing arts department of the Marin Country Day School in Corte Madera.

Mr. Mineah, 75, died February 2 at Marin General Hospital, from complications after heart surgery.

Known as the "Pied Piper of Marin Music," Mr. Mineah performed last year in the annual Mountain Play on Mount Tamalpais, where he shared the stage with his grandson in "Oliver!"

Mr. Mineah was a native of Jacksonville, Fla., a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a veteran of the U.S. Navy, in which he served as a saxophonist with the band. He was also an accomplished pianist.

Mr. Mineah was a child actor on the radio and stage in St. Louis and Chicago before coming to the Bay Area in the 1940s. In 1956, he was among a small group of teachers who founded the highly regarded private grammar school inside canvas tents on the muddy grounds of a Girl Scout camp.

For five decades, thousands of students were inspired by Mr. Mineah's fervent and passionate teaching of music and drama.

He was the former choir director at Church of our Saviour in Mill Valley, a founder of the Mill Valley Light Opera Company and member of the board of the Marin Symphony.

Mr. Mineah is survived by his daughter Kristin of Sausalito, his son Mark of Vallejo and by three grandchildren. His wife of 45 years, Dianne -- whom he met when he cast her in a Mill Valley operetta - died two years ago.

A memorial celebration will be held at the school on June 1.