Barbara Langdale Barker
One of the four children of Robert and Hazel Langdale, Barbara Langdale Barker was born in Orange, Connecticut, in 1914. She attended Pembroke College in Providence, Rhode Island, where she earned the academic distinction of being elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She married Harold Barker in 1936 and in 1939 they had a son, David Barker.
Barbara Barker served the Branford school system for twenty-nine years from September 1947 until September 1971 as a teacher of business and college preparatory English classes at Branford High School. She seems to have come by her interest in the classroom naturally, as both of her parents were also educators -her mother actually taught English at Branford High School for twenty-two years. But Barbara Barker's insistence on correct grammar, seemly deportment and a strong work ethic were solidly her own. Former students remember her drilling vocabulary into them, correcting their ambiguous sentences and catching their every misplaced comma with a sharp eye. Everyone knew that with "Ma" Barker, spelling always counted. However, attests one former student, she also had considerable wit and a ready smile. She made you want to learn; she gave it meaning. Particularly vivid in memory is Barbara's teaching poetry using what students could remember of the national anthem. Rhyme, rhythm, stanza, verse, historical allusions, rhetorical and poetic devices she convinced her students that they knew what poetry is, even if they could not name its "parts".
Strong-willed, proud without a touch of arrogance, believing that women could perform equally as well as men given the chance, Barbara was a feminist before the term became the watchword of a generation. These attributes and her love for tennis led her to become the first woman ever to coach a boys' tennis team at the high school level. She herself played with passion and considerable prowess; winning, along with her husband, trophies in local invitational tournaments. She was a member of the New Haven Tennis Association, winning the city championships in the 1950's.
Her love of country and sense of duty extended to volunteering during World War II to serve as an air raid warden and plane spotter, scanning the skies over Branford Point for enemy planes. Barbara might well have agreed with poet John Milton who noted, "They also serve who only stand and wait".
The Class of 1960, in their dedication of the Milestone to Barbara Barker, applauds her as being "much more than a teacher to us". She was counselor, advisor and friend and there she stands in the photographs that accompany their words of appreciation, in her classroom attire beside a poster of a Shakespearean theater and in her tennis "whites", racket in hand, beside her beloved husband. They hold trophies and Barbara is smiling. In her thank you to her class, she quoted a bit of Robert Browning; "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be…"
Perhaps it may be understood as an invitation to graduating seniors to lay aside all fears for the future and enter confidently into an adult world. Perhaps we may take her words as an expression of hope for her own future with the man with whom she shared her life. Perhaps it was a bit of both. Dying twelve years later on February 2, 1972, Barbara Barker never did grow old. Her dedication to her profession is her most important legacy.
Barbara Barker served the Branford school system for twenty-nine years from September 1947 until September 1971 as a teacher of business and college preparatory English classes at Branford High School. She seems to have come by her interest in the classroom naturally, as both of her parents were also educators -her mother actually taught English at Branford High School for twenty-two years. But Barbara Barker's insistence on correct grammar, seemly deportment and a strong work ethic were solidly her own. Former students remember her drilling vocabulary into them, correcting their ambiguous sentences and catching their every misplaced comma with a sharp eye. Everyone knew that with "Ma" Barker, spelling always counted. However, attests one former student, she also had considerable wit and a ready smile. She made you want to learn; she gave it meaning. Particularly vivid in memory is Barbara's teaching poetry using what students could remember of the national anthem. Rhyme, rhythm, stanza, verse, historical allusions, rhetorical and poetic devices she convinced her students that they knew what poetry is, even if they could not name its "parts".
Strong-willed, proud without a touch of arrogance, believing that women could perform equally as well as men given the chance, Barbara was a feminist before the term became the watchword of a generation. These attributes and her love for tennis led her to become the first woman ever to coach a boys' tennis team at the high school level. She herself played with passion and considerable prowess; winning, along with her husband, trophies in local invitational tournaments. She was a member of the New Haven Tennis Association, winning the city championships in the 1950's.
Her love of country and sense of duty extended to volunteering during World War II to serve as an air raid warden and plane spotter, scanning the skies over Branford Point for enemy planes. Barbara might well have agreed with poet John Milton who noted, "They also serve who only stand and wait".
The Class of 1960, in their dedication of the Milestone to Barbara Barker, applauds her as being "much more than a teacher to us". She was counselor, advisor and friend and there she stands in the photographs that accompany their words of appreciation, in her classroom attire beside a poster of a Shakespearean theater and in her tennis "whites", racket in hand, beside her beloved husband. They hold trophies and Barbara is smiling. In her thank you to her class, she quoted a bit of Robert Browning; "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be…"
Perhaps it may be understood as an invitation to graduating seniors to lay aside all fears for the future and enter confidently into an adult world. Perhaps we may take her words as an expression of hope for her own future with the man with whom she shared her life. Perhaps it was a bit of both. Dying twelve years later on February 2, 1972, Barbara Barker never did grow old. Her dedication to her profession is her most important legacy.