“If it’s fun, do it.”
It’s a simple motto, but it has served Jerry and Tammy Barber well. Married 18 years, Jerry, 83, and Tammy, 62, have traveled the world, built companies, earned patents, won awards, raised children, helped raise millions for charity and, for good measure, have plummeted to the earth on a 485-foot tall amusement park ride in Australia – that he invented.
Every amusement park has four categories of rides: roller coasters, invented in the 1800s; the ferris wheel, invented in the 1800s; the merry-go-round, invented in the 1700s; and the freefall ride, invented in the 1980s by none other than Greenville’s own Jerry Barber.
Whether it’s Tower of Terror at Disney, the Freefall at Carowinds or the Big Shot that sits on top of The Strat Hotel in Las Vegas, they all started with an idea Jerry had outside a Columbia gas station.
“I’m sitting there looking at this tall sign, and I’m thinking, wouldn’t it be a neat ride if you could jump off the top?” he recalls. “The problem is when you hit the ground,” he adds with a wry smile.
Jerry Barber can’t just let a problem like that go unsolved, so he got to work and came up with a patented design that curves to horizontal to bring the ride to a stop. He then licensed his plans to Swiss company Intamin. “For the life of the patent – 17 years – every time they built one, they sent me a check,” he says.
And while that was one of his bigger inspirations, it’s certainly not the only one. Barber has earned a reputation throughout his life for thinking outside the box.
“Jerry is very logical and intelligent, and if something doesn’t make sense to him, he will morph it into something that does make sense,” Tammy says.
As a teacher, a principal, an inventor and a business leader – he owned Venture Ride Manufacturing and now runs wind technology company BarberWind alongside Tammy – he has always been known to break the rules, a quality frequently applauded by his students, coworkers and employees.
“That’s why his companies are so successful,” Tammy says. “He allows people to think for themselves.”
In fact, he has always encouraged his employees to fail, because if they weren’t failing, they weren’t pushing the company forward. “If you push the envelope, sometimes you make mistakes,” he says. But learning from that mistake and moving forward is the key to breaking new ground.
The traveling carnival
Jerry Barber’s love of amusement rides started early. He grew up on his grandparents farm in Jamestown, Ohio, and after World War II, his father started a traveling carnival. While Jerry knew nothing about Ohio State – he thought it was a penitentiary – a friend was going there for college, and he decided he would go too, the first person from his family to attend a university.
He earned a degree in comprehensive science and education, and went on to teach science. By age 25, he became the youngest high school principal in Ohio, and he loved it, but he was having success with another passion as well.
“Mix physics and a father who owns a traveling carnival, and you start inventing amusement rides,” he says.
At night and on weekends, he was inventing and building full-size rides, first the Caravel, soon renamed the Turbo, which he built in his garage with a few friends. Then It was the Haunted Fort, and then the Telstar.
Before he knew it, Chance Rides in Wichita, Kansas, was offering to buy and make his designs — but only if he came to work for them. At three times the pay rate of being a principal, the offer was too good to resist.
A few years later, Barber decided to build his own company manufacturing amusement rides. The only question was where to locate the business. He spent six months finding the best place in the U.S., and the clear winner was Greenville.
“This was 1971,” he says. “The airport had just opened up, and I moved here, and I just started building rides.”
Venture Ride Manufacturing started as a one-man operation but quickly grew to 80-plus employees. He ran the company for 18 years and was building 100 rides per year, the second largest ride-manufacturer in the U.S. (His former employer, Chance, was first.) He earned 38 patents during these years, and 22 of them went on to be produced commercially.
Today, he has more than 60 U.S. patents. He has 15 more pending, all related to wind technology, while four new rides are in the sketching phase.
“He will never retire,” Tammy says. And that’s just the way he wants it.
Second wind
For the past 12 years, he and Tammy have been using technology to harness wind. They created BarberWind in 2010 to introduce innovative technology to the mid-size wind turbine market.
Tammy Barber is owner and COO, building on her extensive history in marketing and business. Tammy was corporate manager for creative services and web marketing for BI-LO Inc. for more than 15 years, and has also built businesses in interior design and equestrian apparel, even outfitting the 2009 Kentucky Derby winner.
Their turbine, which looks like a Ferris wheel, is causing a stir, especially in the Caribbean, since the product can survive a Category 5 hurricane and create electricity for one-tenth the cost of the diesel systems currently being used.
The couple is also actively involved with numerous organizations, boards and charities, and Jerry is in the early stages of writing a book. Tentatively titled “Need to Be Needed,” the book builds on science, the couple’s travels and their quest to help others live fulfilling lives.
“For 90 percent of humans’ time on earth, people lived in tribes, and your tribe couldn’t keep anyone who wasn’t contributing,” he said. “We are hardwired in our DNA to be needed, and to perceive that we are needed. That’s what controls your happiness.”
He saw this during a trip to five of the poorest areas of China with his son almost 20 years ago. “The same percentage of people were happy there as here among my friends in Greenville,” he said. “These were people with nothing.”
He also spoke with numerous doctors around the world who told him that a sense of engagement leads to not just a more fulfilling life, but a longer one.
The Barbers say that engagement can come from paid work, volunteer projects, getting immersed in a hobby or any activity that allows a person to contribute, feel needed and find joy.
“Find something that speaks to your heart, and find a way to use your skills,” Tammy says. “It makes all the difference in the world.”
Get to know the Barbers
Years married: 18
Kids: six grown kids, eight grandchildren
How long it took him to propose: One date!
Favorite parenting memories:
Individual trips with each child, including dog sledding in Denali, sailing in Greece and many more.
Favorite place
St. Petersburg Russia (Tammy)
China, Japan, Russia (Jerry)
Still to see
The Northern Lights and Royal Ascot.
Favorite restaurant: Larkin’s on the River
Meaningful Project
Beach Ball, which they chaired along with Heidi Aiken. It became the largest one-day fundraiser in the state; in 10 years, it raised $3.5 million for children’s charities that support education and the arts.
Investment advice: “The best investment is money which you have spent on fun.” (Jerry)
Tammy’s favorite things about Jerry: His sense of humor, and he’s a good man.
Jerry’s favorite thing about Tammy: Just look at her, that’s all I’ve got to say.
