Christopher Bark (6 May 1967 - 21 Nov 2020)

Chris was born in Boston in 1967 to Eric and Gillian. He was their eldest son and the family was completed by the birth of Darren. He attended Hawthorne Tree school in Boston, Lincolnshire, then attended Boston Grammar school before moving to Nottingham, where he then went to Haywood comprehensive. In the early 1970s, the family moved to Nottingham. It was a happy childhood and Chris showed an interest in technology at a very young age. When he was just eleven, he managed to get hold of an old traffic light and connected it up to the mains electricity of the family home. Terrifying for Eric, but it worked perfectly. 

After completing college, Chris started at uni, but it wasn’t for him and he began to work in the sphere of IT. His first job was repairing computers for Nottingham county council, where at the time he was the only person doing that job, so they relied on him. He really found his niche in the IT world and went on to enjoy working with technology both in his spare time and professionally. He was amazing at fixing anything related to computers and in his last few months, he even built his grandson, Toby, a gaming laptop which Toby loves.

Chris worked at different companies, such as Cadbury's, ATOS and the Nottingham Trent university. He also helped Adam into a similar career and helped him to build his first computer. When he worked at Cadbury’s he would bring home boxes of broken chocolate, much to the delight of his family.

In the 90s, Chris welcomed his children, Adam, Amy and Matthew with his first wife, Hazel. He was a fun loving dad, although he worked hard. The family enjoyed holidays, especially to Cornwall, where Amy remembered feeding pot-bellied pigs from the door of the caravan.
Chris was passionate about cars and took Adam and Matt to both the Silverstone Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix. When he was with his second wife, Helen, she bought him a longed for TVR. He completely rebuilt his own TVR V8 S series in cooper green. He enjoyed attending TVR car club events and organising them. He would drive Amy home in his TVR at the weekends sometimes, and although he was a good driver, he wasn't slow, so it could be quite scary. He stayed friends with a lot of the guys from the TVR car club, despite having to surrender his license and sell his car due to his illness.
He was a highly social human being, enjoying gigs and shows as well as a wide circle of friends. He was loved and liked by many that made up this huge social circle. He had lots of different friends from different parts of his life, through work, the TVR car club and the round table. 
He was always generous with his time and would do anything for anyone. He was always happy to offer suggestions to tech questions and when visiting Amy he would frequently improve her connections, fiddling with the wifi. He was just as helpful to those outside of his family; once sending one of his own etched TVR glasses to an acquaintance who had broken theirs that Chris had previously made.

He was diagnosed twelve years ago but in typical style, he stoically got on with life. He still attended gigs and kept in touch with his friends from the car world. He also found time to love again and enjoyed the time he spent with Elaine in his final months. She was a constant and kind companion to Chris and looked after not only him, but also his children.

Chris will be fondly remembered by everyone who loved him. Never forgotten.

The best dad.