Donald Barr, poet, literary critic, children's book author, and Headmaster of the Dalton School, a leading coed private school in New York, has worked as an editor, mathematics teacher, Italian interpreter, college English instructor, Engineering School dean, Republican district leader, and government official. A New Yorker by birth, son of an economist (College '13) and a psychologist (Barnard '14), he was educated conservatively at the Horace Mann School and progressively at the Lincoln School before coming to the College in 1937. At Columbia he played chess, edited the Columbia Review, and belonged to Philolexian, while dividing his academic interests between math and anthropology. He graduated in 1941. Then he went into the Army, where he served as an Italian interpreter in a POW camp and as a member of an OSS team in Germany. After a brief stint as a literary editor of a magazine…

CCT vol. 15 (~1967) contributor bio note explicitly confirms Donald Barr's Philolexian membership: 'At Columbia he played chess, edited the Columbia Review, and belonged to Philolexian.' Full CV: New York native (son of Columbia College '13 economist and Barnard '14 psychologist); Horace Mann then Lincoln School; Columbia 1937-41; WWII Army Italian interpreter in POW camp + OSS team in Germany; Columbia English instructor 1945-56 (MA); founding director of the Columbia SEAS Science Honors Program (1956); Republican district leader Morningside Heights; NSF (1963); Headmaster of the Dalton School (from 1964); children's books including 'Arithmetic for Billy Goats' (1966); four sons.

Columbia College Today — vol. 15 (~1967), contributor bio note on Donald Barr '41 →