Author, Editor, and Activist

Barbara Kamb Marinacci ’54

July 18, 2024, Pacific Palisades, California, of cancer.

Author, editor, and activist Barbara Kamb Marinacci grew up with her older twin brothers and mother in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Jose, California, before relocating to Pasadena. She attended Reed, UC Berkeley, and the Chouinard Art Institute (later CalArts), at which she met her future husband, Rudy Marinacci.

Barbara published six nonfiction books and was a coauthor, editor, researcher, and ghostwriter of numerous texts. Her books covered subjects such as 19th-century actresses, Walt Whitman, commodity speculation, and Spanish place names (in a book cowritten with Rudy).

Most notable was Barbara’s editing of Linus Pauling’s book In His Own Words, which detailed more than 60 years of his life and work. She was also instrumental in the publication of Dr. Pauling’s book No More War!, and many years later worked with him at the Linus Pauling Institute.

In the mid-1980s, Barbara worked as editor in chief for the history book division of Windsor Books. Later, postdivorce and residing in Mar Vista, she became a consultant to nonprofit organizations dealing with mental health, education, and ethnic-minority issues. And with her project the Cosmos Circle, she created an HIV/AIDS psychosocial support group and networking program, despite a climate of fear and stigmatization.

Barbara was preceded in death by her ex-husband Rudy. She is survived by her children, Michael, Christopher, and Ellen.

Appeared in Reed magazine: Spring 2025

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