Even in the waning years of his life, Gerard Barnes remained involved in the calling that defined his life: basketball.
Shortly before he died Tuesday morning, Barnes was sitting with his daughter Salena at his home in Yigo, near Andersen Air Force Base in northern Guam, watching the NBA playoffs on television.
Salina Burns, who remained involved in basketball “until the very end,” talked about her father, who passed away at age 73 after a long battle with cancer.
He spent 25 years in the Air Force Security Forces, retiring as a master sergeant, and served as Andersen's fitness center director for nearly 30 years before retiring late last year.
Burns played basketball in the Air Force and the U.S. Army, tried out for the Olympic team in 1976, and coached three Pacific Air Forces championship teams in the 1980s.
“He had two loves in his life: the Air Force and basketball,” said Sarena Burns, who played for her father when he was an assistant coach for the Karasuyama High School girls team in the late 1990s.
“These things combined to give him great joy. He loved building relationships and helping people, and how he helped them build confidence and understand the talents they had. They told me how they helped,” Salena Burns said.
Barnes, a native of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, joined the Air Force in the early 1970s and was assigned to nearly every Pacific Air Force base in existence.
After his active duty years ended, Burns coached the South Korean military team to PACAF tournament championships in 1983, 1986 and 1987. He was first assigned to Andersen in his late 1980s and ended up living and working there for most of his life.
In addition to coaching and playing, Burns also helped design state-of-the-art fitness centers at Osan Air Base and Gunsan Air Base in South Korea, as well as Andersen's Coral Reef Sports and Fitness Center, which opened in 2005. That’s it,” Sarina Burns said.
Burns' tenure at Andersen was interrupted by a two-year stint as fitness center director at Karasuyama in the late 1990s, assisting Bruce Barker on the high school team, and two years at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa in the mid-2000s.
His days as a player, coach and fitness center director boiled down to serving others, his daughter said. “He loved service and he loved sports,” Sarena Burns said.
Mr. Burns is survived by his wife, Sukcha, four children, Tanisha, 49, Sarena, 42, Jordan, 25, and Jason, 23, and two grandchildren, Meka Scribner. (18 years old) and Karin Neal (16 years old) are left behind.
The funeral is scheduled for May 25th at Our Lady of Peace Memorial Park in Barrigada, Guam.