Please indulge me. This is not a technical subject, but I have just learned of the passing of Dr Barker, and I know that several of you would have known him, a distinguished academic in Structural Engineering both at the University of Minnesota and at Virginia Tech. He was first and foremost a teacher, and was a gentle and kind man. As my first lecturer in concrete, and later as my Master's adviser and friend, he had a great influence on my life, as he did on many others.
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Vale Dick Barker
- Thread starter hokie66
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msquared48
Structural
Sorry for your loss Hokie.
My Graduate School advisor, Professor Mittet at the UW, passed away in the early 80's of cancer. He was able to manage his pain, out of the box if you know what I mean, and was playing golf daily up to the day he died.
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
My Graduate School advisor, Professor Mittet at the UW, passed away in the early 80's of cancer. He was able to manage his pain, out of the box if you know what I mean, and was playing golf daily up to the day he died.
Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Hokie:
We both have nothing but good memories of Dick Barker, he was a fine teacher and mentor. I took my first concrete and steel design courses from him, and at that time I was actually in the School of Architecture at the Univ. of Minn., trying to become a chip off the old block, and he was a fairly new Assistant Prof. I don’t know about his preaching at church, but he converted me from Arch. to Structural Engineering. I was to darn practical to get top grades in Arch. but did really well in his classes, liked that tack on structures, and switched majors. Of course, I called him Dr. Barker then, but I got to know him on a different level when he would come back here or at various meetings and the like. About the time he moved from here to Virginia Tech., I believe he also worked in one of the larger consulting offices here in the Twin Cities. He left a good kind of dent in our profession. And, I’m sure a whole bunch of good engineers can trace their beginnings to his help and inspiration.
We both have nothing but good memories of Dick Barker, he was a fine teacher and mentor. I took my first concrete and steel design courses from him, and at that time I was actually in the School of Architecture at the Univ. of Minn., trying to become a chip off the old block, and he was a fairly new Assistant Prof. I don’t know about his preaching at church, but he converted me from Arch. to Structural Engineering. I was to darn practical to get top grades in Arch. but did really well in his classes, liked that tack on structures, and switched majors. Of course, I called him Dr. Barker then, but I got to know him on a different level when he would come back here or at various meetings and the like. About the time he moved from here to Virginia Tech., I believe he also worked in one of the larger consulting offices here in the Twin Cities. He left a good kind of dent in our profession. And, I’m sure a whole bunch of good engineers can trace their beginnings to his help and inspiration.
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