Donald Barr

Donald Barr
Barr in a 1974 Dalton School yearbook
Born(1921-08-08)August 8, 1921
Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
DiedFebruary 5, 2004(2004-02-05) (aged 82)
Langhorne, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma materColumbia University (AB, MA)
OccupationEducator
Known forHeadmaster of the Dalton School and the Hackley School
SpouseMary Margaret Ahern
Children4, including William and Stephen

Donald Barr (August 8, 1921 – February 5, 2004) was an American educator, writer, and Office of Strategic Services (OSS) officer. He was an administrator at Columbia University before serving as headmaster at the Dalton School in New York City and the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York.[1] He also wrote two science fiction novels. His sons are former United States attorney general William Barr and physicist Stephen Barr.

Early life and education

Barr was born in Manhattan, New York City, the son of Estelle (née DeYoung), a psychologist, and Pelham Barr, an economist.[2] He and his wife, Mary Margaret (née Ahern), had four children including William P. Barr (who served as the 77th U.S. attorney general in the George H. W. Bush administration and as the 85th U.S. attorney general in the first Donald Trump Administration)[3][4] and particle physicist Stephen Barr.[5]

Donald Barr was born to a Jewish family, but later converted to Catholicism. He sent his children to a Catholic elementary school and his son William would later describe him as "more Catholic than the Catholics".[6][7]

Barr graduated from Columbia College in 1941 with a degree in mathematics and anthropology.[5]

Career

Barr served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. Following the conflict, he returned to Columbia, where he earned an M.A. in English in 1950 and completed some course requirements for a Ph.D. in the discipline while also teaching in the English department.[4][8] During this period, he also taught "courses with field work in sociology and political science at the School of Engineering" and wrote "science and mathematics texts for elementary and junior high school students". He initiated the Columbia University Science Honors Program in 1958 and was its director (as an assistant dean at the School of Engineering) until 1964. From 1963 to 1964, he also administered the National Science Foundation Cooperative College-School Program.[4]

Dalton School

He was headmaster of the Dalton School from 1964 to 1974.[9] Toward the end of his tenure as headmaster, he hired college dropout Jeffrey Epstein, who would later be convicted of sex trafficking, as a math and science teacher. In February 1974, Barr announced his resignation at the end of the school year.[9][10] Epstein began working at Dalton in September 1974.[10][11] At Dalton, Epstein tutored the children of Alan Greenberg, who later offered him a job at Bear Stearns.[11]

Writing career

In 1973, Barr published Space Relations, a science fiction novel about a planet ruled by oligarchs who engage in child sex slavery. It has been noted that the plot of the novel anticipates the crimes of Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.[12]

Barr also reviewed books for The New York Times.[4][8] In addition to his two science fiction novels, he sold two stories to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction; one of these (the 2002 "Sam") was reprinted in the 2003 anthology Year's Best Fantasy 3.

In 1983 President Ronald Reagan nominated Donald Barr to be a member of the National Council on Educational Research.[13]

Selected works

References

  1. ^ Maeroff, Gene I. (March 13, 1977). "Barr Puts His Stamp on Hackley". New York Times. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
  2. ^ Reginald, R. (September 1, 2010). Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature Vol 2. Wildside Press LLC. ISBN 9780941028776. Retrieved February 14, 2019 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Savage, Charlie; Haberman, Maggie (December 7, 2018). "Trump Will Nominate William P. Barr as Attorney General". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved December 7, 2018.
  4. ^ a b c d Saxon, Wolfgang (February 10, 2004). "Donald Barr, 82, Headmaster And Science Honors Educator". The New York Times. p. A25. Retrieved October 8, 2010.
  5. ^ a b "Obituaries". Columbia College Today. May 2004. Archived from the original on September 5, 2019. Retrieved May 30, 2020.
  6. ^ Brenner, Marie (October 7, 2019). "I Had No Problem Being Politically Different". Vanity Fair.
  7. ^ Miller, Judith (January 11, 2019). "Stepping Into the Fire". City Journal. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  8. ^ a b Barr, Donald (May 1, 1955). "Shadowy World of Men and Hobbits". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 24, 2012. Retrieved October 8, 2010. (review of The Two Towers)
  9. ^ a b Maeroff, Gene I. (February 20, 1974). "Barr Quits Dalton School Post, Charging Trustees' Interference". The New York Times. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
  10. ^ a b Mike Baker & Amy Julia Harris (July 12, 2019). "Jeffrey Epstein Taught at Dalton. His Behavior Was Noticed". The New York Times. Retrieved October 23, 2019. While Mr. Barr was strict on the school culture, he made it a point to hire teachers from unconventional backgrounds [...]. "Barr didn't care about credentials as long as you were interesting and knew your stuff," [...] In February 1974, Mr. Barr had announced that he was resigning as headmaster, [...] but that he would stay on until the end of the school year. It is unclear whether Mr. Barr hired Mr. Epstein during that time.
  11. ^ a b "Jeffrey Epstein's prep-school students remember their 'flamboyantly' dressed teacher". Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on February 1, 2026. Retrieved February 5, 2026. Donald Barr, Dalton's headmaster and father of Attorney General Bill Barr, hired Epstein to teach math and science. [...] Students remember Epstein telling them that his relationship with Lynne Greenberg, the daughter of Bear Stearns chairman Alan "Ace" Greenberg, helped Epstein secure his first Wall Street job. Although this was also described as "hearsay" to Yahoo Finance. It has also been reported that Epstein curried favor with Greenberg after tutoring the banker's son.
  12. ^ Ferreira, Becky (August 16, 2019). "Epstein Truthers Are Obsessed With a Sci-Fi Book About Child Sex Slavery Written by Bill Barr's Dad". Vice. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  13. ^ Ronald Reagan: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, 1985
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