In Memoriam Thomas Garden Barnes

Tom Barnes provided the department with the following narrative in February of 2009. We are delighted to share it. Below the narrative is a tribute by Philip T. Spieth, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at Berkeley. This piece will appear as an epilogue to the publication of this year's Nimitz Memorial Lectures

Beth Berry

Born 29 April 1930 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the only child of Professor Demas E. Barnes and Helen G. Barnes (nee Garden), Mr. Barnes attended Shady Side Academy, Pittsburgh, public schools in Ada and Lima Ohio, and graduated from Schenley High School, Pittsburgh, in 1948. He attended Harvard College, 1948-1952, graduating A.B. magna cum laude in History, Phi Beta Kappa. In 1952 he matriculated at Oxford University through Corpus Christi College, receiving the D.Phil. in History in 1955. Concurrently he read for the English bar at Lincoln's Inn, London.
He began teaching history and political science at Lycoming College, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in February 1956. He joined the History Department at the University of California at Berkeley in 1960, and the Law School faculty in 1965. He has been Professor of History and Law, Emeritus, since January 2006, remaining Co-Director of the Canadian Studies Program (International and Area Studies) which he co-founded in 1982. Since 1976 (a charter member) he has served on the faculty committee for the ROTC programs, was its chair, 1990-2005; he takes much pride in contributing to the education of American military officers. As an Assistant Dean of Students during the Free Speech Movement, 1964, he was on the right side of the barricades. With enormous reluctance he gave up teaching after fifty years in the classroom on 1 January 2006.

His fields are English legal history, Tudor-Stuart English history, French legal institutions under Henri IV, law in colonial America, the early history of Nova Scotia, and the history of war, in all of which he has published extensively, books and articles. Co-author of a general European history and a history of Western Civilization, he also wrote the Centennial History of Hastings College of the Law (1978). Chairman of the Board of The Legal Classics Library since 1982, he has written introductions to one-hundred volumes published by that subscription library. A collection of those pieces, Shaping the Common Law: From Glanvill to Hale, 1188-1688 was published by Stanford University Press in 2008). He is an Editor of the English National Archives, Member of Council and State Correspondent for the Selden Society, and was Project Director of the Anglo-American Legal History Project of the American Bar Foundation, 1965-1986. He was a Councillor of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, 1987-1991, Vice-¬President 1999-2001, President 2001-2003, and Past President 2003-2005. He has been a member of the Academic Council of the Center for Security Policy, Washington, since 2004. He received the Alexander Prize of the Royal Historical Society, 1958, and has held Huntington Library, American Council of Learned Societies, and Guggenheim fellowships. The Thomas Garden Barnes Endowed Chair in Canadian Studies established at Berkeley in 2005 was named in his honor.

Mr. Barnes served in the Pennsylvania National Guard, 1946-1949, reaching the exalted rank of buck Sergeant (chief of an artillery section) in B Btry, 107thFA Bn, 28th Div. He was co¬founder, Vice-Provost, and Praelector in Church History of St. Joseph of Arimathea Anglican Theological College, Berkeley, 1977-1984. His hobbies are outdoors and on (and in) water.

In 1955, Mr. Barnes married Jeanne-Marie H.M. Dubus in Paris, France. They live in Berkeley, where Mrs. Barnes is an interior decorator, but summer in southwestern Nova Scotia at a family home and 230 acre woodlot settled by Mr. Barnes's Loyalist great-great-great grandfather in 1784. Much work, lots of dry-rot, some fish. They have three surviving (bilingual) children, all happily married, six grandchildren, and family in three countries on two continents.

Epilogue
THOMAS GARDEN BARNES
1930 -- 2010

On 9 March 2010 the Nimitz Lectureship and the Military Officers Education Committee lost one of their founding fathers and their long time guiding light when Thomas Garden Barnes died in Sacramento, California.

Tom Barnes was a Unique.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a graduate of Harvard University (A.B.) and of Oxford University (D.Phil.), he joined the Berkeley faculty in 1960. His self-described academic fields were English legal history, Tudor-Stuart English history, French legal institutions under Henri IV, law in colonial America, the early history of Nova Scotia, and the history of war, in all of which he published extensively. During his 50 years at Berkeley he held appointments—not sequentially, but rather cumulatively—in the Department of History, the School of Law, and the Canadian Studies Program, the last of which he co-founded in 1982 and served as Co-Director until his death.

In 1976, when the continued existence of ROTC programs at Berkeley was in jeopardy, Barnes answered the call to service, becoming, when the academic conflict settled, a charter member of the academic committee, now known as the Military Officers Education Committee, that was charged with assuring the academic quality of the ROTC programs and academic qualifications of the military officers appointed to teach the ROTC courses. He was an active and enthusiastic member of the committee for the rest of his life. He became chair of the committee in 1990 and held that position for 15 years until poor health forced him to step down as chair in 2005.

He took much pride in contributing to the education of American military officers and was proud of the abilities and accomplishments of the students and the military faculty that have been the Military Affairs program at Berkeley. He firmly held the view that a Berkeley education makes for a better officer corps in a nation dedicated to the principle of a citizen-solider military service. Barnes was proud of his own military service with the Pennsylvania National Guard in the late 1940’s where, in his own words, he reached “the exalted rank of buck Sergeant (chief of an artillery section) in B Btry, 107thFA Bn, 28th Div.” He could assume a delightful sense of false modesty when apprising an Army colonel or a Navy captain of his own active duty credentials.

Given his interest and expertise in the history of warfare, it is no surprise that Barnes adamantly regarded military affairs as a serious academic subject and a major element in the study of history, international affairs and national security. It is only natural that he was actively involved in the creation of The Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Memorial Lectures and that he was its leading light thereafter until his health failed at the time of this year’s lectures. The renown that the lectures has achieved and the stellar list of distinguished scholars, sailors, soldiers, diplomats, strategists, and
officials who have served as Nimitz Lecturers are due in no small part to Thomas G. Barnes.

All of these accomplishments, impressive as they are, pale beside the real contribution that Barnes made, which is the impact that he had on a multitude of people who had the good fortune to know him, whether as colleagues, students, friends, what ever. Above all, he was a mentor: a mentor under whom being mentored was a pleasure. His love of language and his way with words made listening to him, or reading his prose, a joy. And his words generally contained a smile.

Few could match his intellect and articulate discourse, but he treated all as his intellectual equal. When he was leading the discussion with a prospective military faculty member, the interview inevitably changed into a collegial intellectual discussion. According to his colleagues in History, the same was true for oral exams with PhD students. In fact, almost all conversations with him had the same quality. Talking with him was just plain fun, and if one paid attention there was generally something to be learned.

A large part of his charm was that he had opinions on almost any topic and was not reticent in expressing them, even though, as was usually the case, his opinions were minority views by Berkeley standards--if not downright reactionary. But he delivered them lovingly with charm, grace and without rancor. He judged people by their intellectual discourse rather than by the positions they advocated, and others in turn could listen to him in the same way. A close colleague described Barnes “as a cross between a hearty English country squire of the eighteenth century and a Victorian bishop of the Muscular Anglican species.” The description is both apt and loving. On ecclesiastic matters Barnes was particularly old school. Among other things, he was staunchly opposed to women being priests. But, at the same time, he was very proud to have a daughter rise to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army. He too had contradictions that are inherent to being human.

For all who had the good fortune to know him, the world was made a better place. With the Nimitz Lectureship he has left the Berkeley campus, the greater community, and the Military Affairs program a great legacy to be carried forward to future generations.

Philip T Spieth
Professor Emeritus, ESPM
Chair, Military Officers Education Committee

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