Columbia University School of Engineering - Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 7 text:

of budget and policy and of the Executive Committee of the University Council which prepares legislation for the general direction of the University, He was a member of the Butler Commission on Economic Aiairs which presented its report to President Butler during the past winter. ln addition, he is chairman of the Committee on Men's Residence Halls, which has made a splendid start in the reorganization and rehabilitation of the dormitories at Columbia. He is a member of the Century Association of New York, Engineers Club, Columbia University Club and the Saltaire Yacht Club. A member of Phi Kappa Sigma, Tau Beta Pi, and Sigma Xi, Dean Barker holds the distinction of having been created an otihcer of the Order of Prince Danilo I of the Nlontenegran Royal House.

Page 6 text:

EIUEYHPUP OSEPH IMARREN B.XRKE'R'XV21S born at Lawrence, Mass., on june 17, 1891. He attended the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which latter institution he received the degrees of B. S. and M. S. in electrical engineering. On June 17, 1916, he married Mary Metcalf Perin of Brookline, Mass. In 1916 he joined the army, went to the Coast Artillery School at Fort Monroe, Va.. and after being stationed as Instructor at the Field Artillery School of Fire, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, went overseas with the American Expeditionary Forces as a Captain of Coast Artillery, rising to the rank of major. He served as Battery Commander, Battalion Commander and General Staff Gfficer during active operations. -He remained abroad with the Peace Commission, the Headquarters of the American Expeditionary Forces and the Army of Occupation in Germany until 1923, when he returned to America. He attended the advanced course at the Coast Artillery School and then took his master's degree at M. I. T. Resigning from the Army in September, 1925, he remained at M. I. T. as associate professor of electrical engineering for four years. Due to the size of the department, in addition to his teaching and his work as principal research assistant in illumination of the National Research Council, he was assigned administrative and executive duties which laterled to his appointment at Lehigh University as Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and director of the curriculum. A year later he came to Columbia to assume the duties of Dean of the Engineering School. In connection with his responsible position, Dean Barker has undertaken many varied activities. He heads a. committee of the Division of Engineering and Industrial Research of the National Research Council, which by means of regional conferences is making surveys of the research capacities of all engineering schools in this country seeking to bridge the gap between university and industry with a view toward greater efficiency and less duplication. He is a member of the Committee on Professional Recognition of the Engineers, Council for Pro- fessional Development, is chairman of the Committee on Production and Applica- tion of Light of the A. I. E. E., is a member of the Technical Program Committee, A. I.E. E., and is chairman of the Committee on Comprehensive Examinations and Aptitude Testing of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education. He is chairman of a committee of Deans of New York State schools of engineering which was appointed by the State Commissioner of Education at Albany for the purpose of standardizing degrees and requirements and of advising the department on licensing of the engineering profession. In accord with his belief that engineering schools can learn much from each other in the methods of teaching and administration, he has visited western and mid-western universities. and in the summer of 1931 went abroad to visit English, French and German universities. The same spirit has been further manifested in his contacts with professional societies. and he takes an active part in their annual conventions. Wfhile his greatest professional interest lies with the Ameri- can Institute of Electrical Engineers, of which he is a fellow, the Illuminating Engineering Society, of which he was president in 1932-33, and the International Commission on Illumination, he is actively connected with the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society for the Pro- motion of Engineering Education and the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science, of which he is a fellow. In the general administrative work of the University he is a member of the Advisory Committee in Educational Policy. which assists the President on matters

Page 8 text:

etn tal fur ngineers DEAN loseiari NV. BARKER Tlzc1'e' are more things in herwen and earth, Horatio, than are dwfeamt of in your philosophy. -Slzakespeare. oiz .x NUMBER OF YEARS you have been subjected to an educational system calculated to lay the nrm foundation and to erect the naked steel work of your inental structure. Unlike a physical building this mental structure cannot be tested for ultimate strength with any degree of precision. Wfe shall never know precisely nor for many years even approximately whether or not we have turned out individual products conforming to specifications. The grades which you have obtained from us are purely subjective measures of our guesses as to your ability to absorb certain material after due exposure to its principles in class and laboratory. Wfe do know however that we have not, nor could we have, given you instruction in ewrytlzirzg necessary for progress toward being an engineer in the truest and highest meaning of that word. Even if it has been true in the past that the engineer has thought of his work in purely technical terms it is no longer possible for him to divorce himself or his work from the larger and more important problems of the society in which we live, At the same time that we owe a duty to ourselves, our family and our employer or colleague -we owe a more important duty to humanity at large and to the community about us. Vlfe must learn to take our responsibilities in the problems confronting our civilization and our share of the community activities. It is probably true that there is no method of teaching you how to do such things, it is certainly true that we have not done so. All we have done is to attempt to introduce the barest outlines of the development of this civilization, of the technical applications of science and of the economics of these technologies. It is up to you to determine the interrelationships as they develop in your own particular cases. Such a determination makes it essential that you learn to know your fellow men, that you broaden your contacts as widely as possible and that you keep your minds open and alert to the implications of the occurrences through which you will live. There are selish advantages in such things as well, for upon your breadth of contacts and the alertness of your minds will depend the opportunities for better employment and advancement. r Here in one of the largest metropolitan regions of the world you have had rich opportunities for contacts with the world of affairs and of men, the world of arts, science and technology, the world of literature, painting, sculpture, drama and music, the World of society in its largest sense. Do I hear you again shouting, Yes, but you've kept us too busy with reports and home preparation for us to have time to grasp these opportunities. VVe couldn't hnish the assignments, let alone do any of these other things. All that only goes to prove how much there is left for you to study. You know in your inmost hearts that you didnlt master all the technical material presented to you and that at the same time you found some opportunities for the other things. Your own student life has been a miniature replica of the greater life into which you enter on leaving Morningside. Some of the problems you have here encountered will be again presented to you on a much larger scale. lt is one of the drawbacks of a great urban university that so many of the students live at home, and have their student contacts limited to the classrooms and laboratories. It is one of the advantages of our L'niversity that we are not continually living on a