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University Daily Kansan
Friday, Nov. 1, 1957
Quiet Man With Tough Job—
This Week's Nice Guy
DR. HAROLD G. BARR
"Sometimes I get lonely on this job and wish I could be back with a congregation. The first few years here were hard ones for me, for the numerous prayers I offered at campus events seemed superficial.
"But then I found out that the prayers weren't as superficial as they seemed; that students have a deep and sincere desire for religious leadership."
The man doing the talking has been giving University invocations for 20 years. He is the one who starts the pomp and ceremony of an opening convocation with a prayer. It's his voice you hear echoing through the crowd as they bow their heads for a brief moment at a basketball game. He is Dr. Harold G. Barr, head of the Kansas Bible
Chair and dean of the School of Religion—a quiet man with a tough job.
No small amount of diplomacy is required to keep one Jewish and seven Christian groups working together in the Kansas School of Religion. As dean of the school, Dr. Barr walks a tightrope between the views of these groups and the requirements of the University.
Although University credit is given for religion courses, the School of Religion is entirely supported by the church groups. The Christian Church owns and operates Myers Hall. The eight faculty members are paid by their various denominations.
"The problems of cooperation aren't always as bad as they seem." Dr. Barr said. "The fact that the school has existed as long as it has indicates that cooperative religious teaching works."
"In my case the decision came quite suddenly." he said.
What makes a man become a minister?
When only 18, he filled in for ministers who were unable to deliver their Sunday sermons. The second of these fill-in sermons was given at a Christian Church in a little Iowa town. His decision to become a minister came while riding home to Council Bluffs on the train.
"I always thought I wanted to be an electrical engineer, but I realized that I wanted to enter the ministry more than anything else," he said.
This was in 1914. Dr. Barr received his A. B. degree from Drake University and entered the army during World War I. He was a chaplain on an ammunition train in France. Later he did graduate work at Drake, Chicago University, Union Theological Seminary, Northwestern University and the Pacific School of Religion.
After serving as minister in four other Christian churches, Dr. Barr came to Lawrence in 1937 as minister of the First Christian Church and head of the Kansas Bible Chair.
Since 1944 he has given full time to heading the Bible chair and the School of Religion.
Dr. and Mrs. Barr have two daughters, Marilyn and Margaret.
Dr. Barr writes a column in the magazine, "The Christian Evangelist," called, 'The Question of the Week.' Our question of the week is: who is this week's Nice Guy? You guessed it, Dr. Barr.
Larry Boston
We get all sorts of junk in the mail. Here's an example:
The Cat's Meow
"For more than four years, you, the members in the territories and abroad have been clamoring to have CAT WEEK internationalized. We, at National Headquarters, have been working on it for two years. Now, at long last, it is a fact!"
In the center of the page is a globe, the words "Cat Week International, Nov. 3-9, 1957." and a picture of a wide-eyed feline monster staring into the wild, blue yonder.
Now isn't that the cat's whiskers? The American Feline Society, Inc., 41 Union Square, West, New York 3, N.Y., puts out this earth-shaking palver on a sheet printed in red ink.
Supposedly the purpose of the pamphlet and the publicity is to promote Cat Week, cat lovers and perhaps even cats. The pamphlet also makes a plaintive plea for financial support. It seems somebody at National Headquarters fouled up a couple of years ago and had several thousand Cat Week stickers printed. As a result, the society is now
$49,000 in the hole. And that, kitties, is a mouse of a different color in an international society that is boosting a bigger and better Cat Week.
Do you want to boost Cat Week? Write to the society. They have 600 cats for adoption.
Need information on cats? The society prints a bulletin which they will gladly send you.
Here is a juicy tidbit from the bulletin, entitled, "A Doctor Speaks."
"Do not fear a strange cat that attempts to join you." M. A. Marcus, M.D., writes, "since it indicates that the cat is seeking your protection. Considering the fact that you are so much larger, it also becomes an act of desperate courage on the part of the cat."
"Make an effort to keep the animal, for it will reward you by bridging the stream of life and eventually permit you to compare both the cat's and your own views of the same stream."
That's enough, buddy. We're getting out of the stream right now and retiring to a cup of catnip tea.
...Letters...
Kultured Kansan
Of course, I realize that a culture-conscious student of the famed William Allen White School of Journalism and Public Information may not have heard of anyone as crude and as common as the late newspaperman and author Damon Runyon, but that is no excuse for spelling his name Runyan, as it was in The Daily Kansan of Thursday, Oct. 24. However, be of good heart: it is probable that except for us literary cognoscenti, few of your readers noticed the misspelling or had even heard of Damon Runyon.
—Larry Boston
EDITOR:
I will pass lightly over the error on the sports page of Oct. 17, in Ray Evans instead of Paul!
But here's a good one: In the issue of Monday, Oct. 14, Mr. Walter Van Tilburg Clark was "Walter" in one story and "Arthur" in another. His two novels "The Track of the Cat" and "The Ox-Bow Incident" also broke even in the matter of having the definite article in the title. However, "Ox-Bow" was spelled "Ox-Bow" in one of the stories and "Oxbow" in the other.
Turner was credited with kicking the field goal that defeated Oklahoma in 1946. Anyhow, you apologized handsomely the next day for that error.
Your accuracy, gentlemen, has gone to not.
English teacher
Reformed
Daily Hansan
Telephone VIking 3-2700 Extension 251, news room Extension 376, business office
University of Kansas student newspaper
1904,
brweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 1912
www.kansas.edu/brweekly
Member Inland Daily Press Association
Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by National Advertising Service, 420 Madison Ave., New York, N. Y. News service; United Press. Mall subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon until University year except Sundays and Sunday afternoons, days, and examination periods. Entered as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
NEWS DEPARTMENT
Bob Lyle Managing Editor
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Harry Turner Business
Harry Turner  Business Manager
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Larry Boston Editorial Editor
John Eaton Del Haley, Jim Sieda, Ad-
dresser
There has been only one English Pope—Nicholas Breakspear, who took the title Adrian IV.
The great Hunkpapa Sioux leader, Sitting Bull, had an adopted brother named Jumping Bull.
I'm Always Proud To Say: "Here's My Check"
...when paying a bill or making a purchase, because it indicates that I have a banking connection and that my patronage is worthwhile.
It's handy, too, for it always provides the correct amount and eliminates the necessity of carrying cash...In addition, a check is a bonafide receipt and keeps an accurate record at my fingertips.
The Economy Checking Account at First National is a student favorite. Come in soon and learn more about it.
The First National Bank
Member F.D.I.C.
A Minx Modes Party Dress is a must for the K.U. Carnival on November 9th.
Betty Thomas, Kappa Kappa Gamma, says that for any campus event you can be in style when you buy your clothes from the Jay Shoppe.
This enchanting slimliner of nylon Val bands over its own acetate taffeta slip.
Taupe or blue with matching lace.
Black with white;
sizes 7 to 17...24.95
1
835 Mass.
VI 3-4833