Interpreter had ‘mad skills’

After getting control of his life, he helped hearing impaired.

Danny Barken’s life was hardly conventional, but he made sure it was meaningful. His success in reversing his life helped him overcome substance abuse and led to his later becoming a role model for adults and kids alike.

“Just the other day one of our bartenders told me, ‘Danny is the guy we all want to be,’ and that pretty much sums it up,” said Margaret Sagarin, wife of Josh Sagarin, who is coowner of the Front Page News bar-restaurant in Little Five Points. “There are so many people who don’t get a chance to redirect their lives, but Danny did.”

Daniel Barken, known by all as Danny, died Sunday from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident. He was 40. His body has been cremated and a memorial service is planned for 3-5 p.m. today at Front Page News. Fischer Funeral Care is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Barken was a signlanguage interpreter for a private company and worked at Atlanta’s Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. He’d been there four years, said assistant principal Barbara Shea. Staff and students loved him and not just those who were hearing-impaired.

“He always saw the upside of things,” she said. “He always did more and he always wanted more for the kids.”

One of his projects was trying to convince the Georgia Aquarium to add a hearing-impaired day during the week, not just on weekends, so school kids could visit as a group, she said. “Our goal, before the year is over, is to get those babies to the aquarium,” Mrs. Shea said, “and to start an annual Daniel Barken Day for hearing-impaired kids.”

His job at the school was to interpret for the hearing-impaired students, but he did much more, Mrs. Shea said. He often talked to students about the consequences of making bad decisions, something he knew well.

“He had life experiences they probably had no idea about,” Mrs. Shea said.

The outpouring of love friends and strangers have expressed since Mr. Barken’s death has delighted and overwhelmed his wife, Ronnie Barken. It is almost surreal, considering all that her husband overcame to reach this point in his life, she said.

They met 25 years ago. They became close, but not necessarily in a romantic sense, she said. His substance abuse eventually drove them apart, but oddly brought them back together again after a 13-year estrangement.

“He told me I was his inspiration to change, because I was always there and never gave up on him,” Mrs. Barken said. “And he turned his whole life around.”

In 2005, Mr. Barken applied for a job at Front Page, his first employment in years. He was hired and immediately given the nickname of “Skills” because he kept assuring his interviewer he had “mad skills,” and could handle anything thrown his way.

While working there, he decided to go to college and earn certification as an interpreter of American sign language. In 2008, he left Front Page to become a fulltime interpreter. That year he and his then-fiancée eloped to Las Vegas and got married in a wedding chapel, presided over by an Elvis impersonator.

With a new job and a wife, Mr. Barken embraced his new life, showering people with a positive attitude and trying to help others.

“He wanted to give us a great life,” Mrs. Barken said. “And it was great while he was here.”

Mr. Barken is also survived by his mother, Dixie Blackwell of Cherokee County.

Danny Barken would wear a Mohawk at the schoolyear’s end if his students performed well.