Meet the Midland Team- Stuart Barber
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At the heart of every successful company is a team of dedicated individuals who work to bring ideas to life, solve challenges, and create value for our customers. That’s why we’re thrilled to introduce our Meet the Team series- a celebration of the hardworking employees who drive Midland's success every day.
Meet Stuart Barber, the Director of Sales - Sports and Recreation.
Settling in Kansas City
In his lifetime, Stuart Barber has lived in many places across the United States.
“Army brat is the best way to describe me. My dad transferred to Kansas City in 1967. He was a WWII veteran. He came out of WWII and went to work for the government as a General Services Administration (GSA) employee. He was assigned to Strategic Air Command.”
Barber would be in Kansas City for most of his formative years- completing school here before eventually moving around on his own.
“I’ve been here all throughout school. Kind of like my father, I bounced around for years."
Joining Midland
For many years Barber worked in the electronic security business.
"I started in the field and worked my way up all the way to corporate."
After 17 years in the electronic security business, he connected with the previous Midland owner and joined the company 2 weeks later.
In April 2025, he will have been with the company for 25 years.
The evolution of Midland
At first, Barber was hired on as the West Region Sales Manager.
"In those days you had an east of the Mississippi and West of the Mississippi.”
He then created the sports and recreation channel for sales at Midland.
Over the course of his 25 years at Midland, he's seen the company introduce innovative products.
"We introduced the more high-powered GMRS radios so that was a big leap forward."
He's found the evolution of marketing particularly helpful in his role.
"It has given our buyers much greater awareness of Midland."
But for him, Midland goes beyond the work.
"The business is really like a family business. I like the fact that there is a humanity to Midland. It's not something that you typically see in the corporate world."
Barber is known for bringing rum balls to the office around the holidays.
"My wife had her grandmother's recipe for rum balls and we used to bring in all kinds of homemade creations around the holidays. The rum balls were an immediate hit at Midland. Then, it became a contest with myself and another engineer who is long retired. We wanted to see whose rum balls contained the most rum. I easily won that contest."
He's been bringing them in every year for the past 25 years.
Long-range walkie talkies
For Barber, he appreciates Midland's high-powered products.
"I've always loved the GXT1000 and the GXT1050. Now, we also have the GXT3000. It's just always loved the long-range walkies."
Barber's favorite Midland product is GXT67 GMRS 5-Watt Walkie Talkie - GXT67 PRO.
"The GXT67 PRO. I like that it's a true 5-Watt unit. When you hold it, it's a real nice radio."
A unique hobby
Outside of work, Barber has been involved in the shooting sport since he was about 14. For the last 25 years, he's been involved in Cowboy Action Shooting.
"It's kind of a fantasy shooting sport. You shoot firearms of the Frontier West period so single-action revolvers, lever-action rifles, side-by-side shotguns, but you also develop a persona and you develop a costumer for that persona."
Being a second cousin of Wild Bill Hickok, Barber developed a person of Tame Bill.
"I've shot all over the country, shot at Nationals too many times to count, the same with Worlds. The year before last, I think I was rated #3 in the world in my particular category."
He said there are classifications based on what you shoot, how you shoot, and even a couple based on what you wear.
"I shoot a fairly arcane category called Frontier Cartridge Duelist which is where handguns are shot one handed, not using 2. All of your cartridges are loaded with black powder which is exactly what they were loaded with in the 1870s."
