User:Dogfishhead39/Walter W. Barker

Walter W. Barker Jr.

Walter W. Barker Jr., was an artist, writer, and educator.

He was born in Coblenz, Germany and grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri.

During World War II, he served as a sergeant in the Corps of Military Police in the U.S. Army, earning three battle stars for the battles of Britain, Normandy, and Northern France. At Washington University in St. Louis, he studied painting with Max Beckmann and Philip Guston, and received his BFA in 1948. He earned an MFA from Indiana University, and also studied at the University of Iowa and the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

Mr. Barker's first teaching position was at Salem College in Winston-Salem, N.C. in 1949. From 1950 to 1962 he taught at Washington University and at the Brooklyn Museum School from 1962 to 1966. He moved to Greensboro to join the art faculty of UNC-G, where he was a professor. Between 1962 and 1978 he wrote a number of art reviews and features for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In 1992 he retired from UNC-G, but continued to teach as a professor emeritus for several years afterward.

Starting in 1971, he maintained a summer home and studio in Southport, Maine and the ocean and landscape of Maine became the subject of many paintings. He was a member of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Greensboro and All Saints By-the-Sea in Southport; and traveled extensively, returning often to Italy, particularly to Venice.

Walter W. Barker Jr. died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Greensboro, North Carolina on Thursday, May 13.

Survivors include his children, Emily and Michael Barker; longtime companion, Gretchen Williams and her son Peter Stroud; sister, Martha Hedstrom; nephews, Kenneth, Eric and William Hedstrom; and former wife, Patricia Krebs.