Education
She attended the Parktown High School for Girls in Johannesburg and matriculated in 1949.
She attended the Parktown High School for Girls in Johannesburg and matriculated in 1949.
She obtained a Bachelor of Science in botany and zoology at Witwatersrand University in 1952 and went on to a Higher Education Diploma at the Johannesburg College of Education. She worked as biochemist and medical artist at the Department of Surgery and Medicine, Witwatersrand University from 1953-1955. In 1956 she worked as biochemist for the Department of Water Research at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Johannesburg.
After this she returned to Witwatersrand University once again to take up the post of botanical illustrator for the Botany Department between the years 1957 to 1985.
The Geological Survey Museum in Pretoria employed her as an artist in 1985. Barbara was married to Merrill Andrew Pike and had two sons, Andrew John Pike 1958 and Richard Linden Pike 1961.
She currently lives in Parkwood, Johannesburg.