Barbara Townsend was born in Florida, spent some time in Arizona, Texas, St. Louis, and lived her formative years in Memphis. As a young person in high school, she had her own radio show. She attended Arkansas State earning a BS degree in Radio/TV.
After school, Barbara moved back to St. Louis and worked at a local access station running cameras for college football, taping interviews with fans, and doing general production work. She continued a successful career in broadcasting working on the Today Show in NY, Saturday Night Live, and Meet the Press in Washington. She was fascinated by Chyron and took the training course in Long Island which opened doors throughout the industry. Her skillset and interests grew leading to opportunites doing broadcast graphics with Paintbox and Harry systems. At a career crossroads, Barbara approached her boss and asked to go out to Santa Barbara to train on Wavefront. It changed her trajectory for the next decade.
A connection with Henry LaBounta led to an interview with John Berton in the computer graphics division of ILM. Barbara was hired and worked at the company as a technical director for the next 11 years. Her credits include, Baby’s Day Out, Star Trek, The Mask, Twister, Mars Attacks!, Men in Black 2, Magnolia, Pearl Harbor, Hulk, and many others.
She later spent a number of years working full-time as a mother. As her kids got a little older, she pursued a master’s degree in counseling and today works as a full-time therapist engaging with clients in her private practice. She is engaged in psychedelic assisted therapy and using her systems knowledge, education, and life experience to help people with severe depression.
Barbara is an amazing person and it was truly great to catch up with her and hear about her incredible journey.
Barbara at her desk at ILM - November 29, 1994 (you gotta love photos with dates on them)