Doug Barth (’94)-Senior Planning Manager at Weekends Only

Q: What is your fondest memory of South? 

A: Graduation night. Standing there with my fellow classmates, I recollected on my entire 4 years there and all the fun I had. The night felt like a Cliff’s Notes of the best times of my HS experience. 

Q: What was your favorite class at South? 

A: English with Ms. Brown. She was so passionate and it transcended to the students, especially me. I never really enjoyed reading until I met her. 

Q: What skills did you learn at South that you still use today? 

A: I would say I use math more than anything. My job is very data-driven and finding mathematical solves to complex problems is a daily occurrence. 

Q: Why did you choose to go to France? 

A: I started studying French as Parkway South Junior High in the 7th Grade (back with it was called “Junior High” and was just 7-8th grades). I really enjoyed it and was a natural at picking it up. I continued to study French all the way through High School, spending a few weeks with a family there and in Paris on a high school trip my junior year, and then minored in French at Truman State University. Upon graduation, I was hired in international sales for a small company in St. Louis. After traveling to Paris with the owners of the company a few times to meet with our distributor for Western Europe there and establishing that I was fluent in French and worked well with my French counterparts in Sales, I began traveling to Europe alone (age 22) 4-5 times a year for several weeks at a time. France, Belgium, England, the Netherlands. Paris was my hub and became my second home. 

Q: How was it living in France? 

A: While I never truly “lived” there, I did travel there often enough (probably 12 times during my tenure at that company), being there was amazing. I embraced the culture, the people, and it really started to feel like home. While there I would go days without saying a word in English, would even dream in French – it was pretty awesome/nuts. 

Q: How did you become fluent in French? 

A: Well, I think I mostly answered that above. But beyond the classroom, to become fluent it takes speaking with someone whose first language is French (or whatever language one is trying to learn). I would also translate myself in my head and translate signs I’d see throughout the day. Again, I’d do this in my head vs. out loud so people didn’t think I was some kind of head case (ha). 

Q: Did you take French at South? 

A: Yes all 4 years. 

Q: Do you miss living in Europe? 

A: I miss traveling there as often, yes. My last trip was June two years ago when I took my wife, daughter and mom to Paris and London for 2 weeks. It was a dream of mine to take my family to Europe and show them my second world.  It was great to be able to fulfill that. 

Q: Why did you choose to come back to St. Louis? 

A: I really never left. And that’s because I love it here. Nothing is stopping me from traveling anywhere in the world I want at any time. But St. Louis is home and always will be. Also, we’re no more than 4 hours direct to anywhere in the contiguous 48-states. Not a lot of places in the USA where you can say that.

Q: Why did you decide to live in the city over the county? 

A: Mostly because of the access to sports, restaurants, nightlife, and work (I would eventually work downtown for 7 years after my time traveling to Europe).

Q: What do you enjoy most about your current job? 

A: I am relatively new in this role – about 6 months in – and I like that it’s a small company where everybody is eager to learn and contribute. 

Q: Do you anticipate having another job after this one? 

A: I always anticipate building my skill-set and taking on new challenges in life. I don’t think I will ever just work to hold the job I have forever. 

Q: What is it like changing jobs? 

A: It’s exhilarating and really forces you to get out of your comfort zone and learn new things, meet new people, and humble yourself to not knowing the answers to a lot of things for a while. I encourage it. 

Q: What advice do you have about being resilient? 

A: You just have to know and expect that you’re going to make a lot of mistakes. Expecting everything, or most things, to work out like you want them to is a formula for feeling like a failure. Make mistakes, make a ton of them, and learn from them all. There is no such thing as perfect. 

Q: How many high school reunions have you attended? 

A: Just one – my 20th back in 2014

Q: How did you feel seeing your high school friends again? 

A: It was great. Most of them I hadn’t seen since we graduated, so it was nice to reconnect. I actually became close friends again with a couple of them.