The complexity of modern
living seems sound evidence for the belief that life is too
short for one man to become really acquainted with it. But David
Prescott Barrows, retired general, formerly University president
and, as President Robert Gordon Sproul once said, "sometime"
professor of political science, is living proof that such is not
the case.
A brief recapitulation of
General Barrows' thirty-three years of service to the University
is all that is necessary for one to understand that President
Sproul's remark, "sometime" professor was made out of inspired
respect and not in empty jest. Those years were broken by more
than five years of absence --- all devoted to public and
military service, but General Barrows is still remembered by his
students as an inspiring teacher.
In 1916, General Barrows
served under Herbert Hoover in food administration in Belgium.
He subsequently saw service as a major in the First World War.
Following his retirement from the presidency of the University
in 1923, he spent a year in Europe and Africa --- where he took
a 2500 mile tour of the interior. In Latin America, he was a
visiting professor under the auspices of the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace. Then, in 1933 and 1934, he was the
Theodore Roosevelt professor at the University of Berlin.
Appointed major general
after the First World War, he commanded the 40th Combat Division
of the U. S. National Guard. In the first war, this division
served in France. In the second war, it served in Melanesia and
the Philippine islands.
Retired from the army in
1937, General Barrows had no active duty with his division in
the last war. But in 1941, he became an expert consultant to the
Secretary of War and in 1942 he acted as San Francisco
representative to the director of War Information. He retired
from this position to finish his last year as a teacher at the
University.
Those were the "University
Years." They were packed with rich experiences. But if
experiences were his only wealth, General Barrows was
"well-to-do" long before he ever came to the University.
Of New England ancestry
which goes back to an early colonist who settled in Salem,
Massachusetts, in 1637, General Barrows grew up on a ranch in
Ventura county.
The influence of
California ranch life in the 1870's upon General Barrows'
boyhood probably had something to do with his choice of
recreation in later years. His favorites are hunting, camping
and riding. His love of horses continued throughout his army and
academic careers.
As an officer equal in
physical strength and stamina to any of his men, the General
celebrated his sixtieth birthday by taking a string of horses
and riding 100 miles.
Another report says that
in the early 20's the secretary of the Political Science
department was a former orderly of the General's. The man had
only two tasks --- to light a pipe for the general and see that
his horse was waiting in front of South hall every evening.
With his sister,
Charlotte, General Barrows entered preparatory department of
Pomona college on the day it opened. Since social studies were
not available at Pomona, he came to the University when he
graduated in 1894 to study political science under Bernard Moses
whom he succeeded as professor of Political Science in 1912.
Further education was received at the school of politics and
public law at Columbia and at the University of Chicago, where,
by reason of published studies of American Indians, he was
appointed a Fellow in Anthropology. In June, 1927, he was
granted at Chicago, the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
His first teaching
position was held at San Diego State Teachers' college where he
was professor of history.
In 1900, when President
McKinley appointed the Taft Philippine commission to reorganize
government in those islands, General Barrows became a member.
"It met my deepest yearning," he recalls, "but to this day I do
not know how or why this appointment occurred."
For one year, he was in
charge of Manila schools. He was then appointed chief of the
Bureau of Non-Christian tribes and spent almost two years in
reconnaissance of the little known portions of the Philippines
and in negotiations with primitive tribes, the Sultans of Sulu
and Magindanao and other Moro datus.
In August, 1903, General
Barrows was appointed by Taft to direct educational efforts in
the islands. At the end of five years, through his work and the
natural ambition of the people, thousands of young native
teachers had taken over the rural or barrio schools and a
system of primary, intermediate and high schools was in
operation.
When he became professor
of education at the University in 1910, and later chairman of
the political science department, General Barrows planned to use
his position to develop a field of studies in Spanish-American
institutions and relations.
Even though this was the
time of the Mexican revolution, General Barrows made six trips
south of the border during actual fighting. But continuing
revolt and the request by President Wheeler for administrative
help ended much of what he tried to do.
"I owed much to Benjamin
Ide Wheeler that I could never repay," General Barrows explains.
He was first dean of the graduate school, then dean of the
faculties --- a sort of chief of staff to the president. In
1913, when Wheeler, in failing health, went to Europe, he became
acting president. He held this position up to the time of the
First World War.
After the war, General
Barrows was reappointed president at a time when difficulties
surrounding the University were exceptional. Enrollment had
doubled. Facilities were inadequate. Academic salaries were far
too low. Aware of what it might mean to his reputation if the
money were not granted, President Barrows nevertheless asked
authority to create a financial deficit of $1,000,000 in his
first year. Fortunately, the state legislature made the funds
available. By three successive increases in as many years,
academic salaries were brought to a satisfactory plane.
"This much done," General
Barrows will tell you, "I was ready to resign. I had over twenty
years of exacting administrative work. The regents accepted my
resignation with the request that I continue for one more year.
When that was finished I turned to the freedom which I had long
coveted and which I still enjoy. The great reward which
continues with me from my experience; both as president and
professor, is the warm and generous attachment of the men and
women I first knew as students."
__________
_____. "Our
Distinguished Faculty: General David Prescott Barrows."
California Monthly.
Vol. LXI, Alumni Publication, University of California,
No. 2 (October, 1950), pp. 22, 38.