Dennis Barbour, who inherited the family run three-generation Barbour gas station business in Ceres and helped out at community functions at the drop of a hat, died yesterday. He was 64.

Barbour had been in a coma for three days at Memorial Medical Center in Modesto, after experiencing a number of severe medical issues related to a recent fall on a camping trip.

Barbour operated Barbour’s Save Center at the corner of Whitmore Avenue and Mitchell Road since the retirement of his father, the late Leroy Barbour.  He sold the station – which had been in the family since the 1950s -- to Boyette’s Petroleum 10 years ago and in his retirement collected a number of antique cars, including a 1936 Cadillac, 1939 Lincoln-Zephyr and a 1932 Ford Roadster.

“He was a real gentleman, a real community servant,” said friend, Ceres Police Chief Art deWerk. “He would do anything to help. He really believed in the community.”

Aside from donating to community causes, Barbour would often volunteer to cook at community functions, such as the Ceres Street Faire and the public safety barbecue that annually remembers the late Sgt. Howard Stevenson.

Barbour was an avid fisherman who enjoyed abalone diving on the coast.

He leaves behind his wife, Barbara.