Doris Barger & The Barger Family

Doris Barger grew up in Milton on a ranch which her family had owned since the late 1880s. She returned to Calaveras County when she and her husband Dick retired to Murphys in 1977. They met as youngsters and both attended Stanford University. The Bargers married on her 21st birthday and moved throughout Northern California and Oregon with their two sons Walt and Steve as Dick pursued his career as an executive in the paper industry.

Through the years the couple generously donated their time and resources to our local hospital. Dick served on the Fair Board and Calaveras County Planning Commission. Doris energized the community with her vision for a hospital foundation. She led the effort to form it in 1984, bringing together many local residents dedicated to the hospital's success. She and Dick took lead roles in the building campaign for the new hospital dedicated in 1997.

After his passing in 2002, Doris focused even more diligently on her activities benefiting the hospital. She initiated the Doris Barger Golf Outing, a tournament which has raised more than $200,000 for the Foundation and womens health over the years. She and her sons gave the lead gift in the campaign to bring digital mammography to Mark Twain Medical Center in Dick's memory. A breast cancer survivor herself, Doris also founded Pink in the Night, the local campaign to raise breast cancer awareness.

Doris made the lead gift – $250,000 – to the capital campaign for the James Dalton Medical Office in Angels Camp and its Women's Health Center. She also actively supported projects of Calaveras Youth Mentoring and the Mind Matters Clinic in Murphys.

On August 19, 2016, at the age of 93 Doris passed away peacefully.  While gone, she will never be forgotten as we continue the annual Barger Golf Outing in her name.