Edwin K Barker

Early life and education

Edwin Barker is a native of Indianola, Iowa, where his ancestors were pioneer settlers. He attended the University of Northern Iowa and served in the U.S. Army as part of the U.S. occupation of Japan.

Career

Barker was principal of high schools in Coon Rapids, Chariton, and Boone, Iowa before becoming the first principal of Iowa City West High School in 1968. He received national press coverage due to his innovative disciplinary methods during the 1970s. Time Magazine wrote in 1976: "Tall, thin, bearded Principal Edwin Barker is popular with students and community alike. "He does a good job walking the tightrope of an innovative school system and a conservative backlash," observes one parent. Says Barker: "I'm a believer in basic skills, but I want to do it in a humanitarian environment." Discipline is fairly loose. Barker downplays such issues as drugs (ditch weed, the crude local variety of marijuana, is common), discipline, smoking and leaving school without permission."

Los Angeles Times syndicated columnist Nick Thimmesch wrote in 1976 that Barker had set up smoking areas on school grounds rather than using up school resources enforcing anti-smoking laws. Barker was also involved in controversies involving his support for the student council selection of topic "Black America" for a week of educational programs, sex education, which he favored, suspending football players for drinking and the firing of a teacher over inappropriate items posted in a classroom. Barker retired as principal of West High School in 1979 to manage his apartment business. In 2011 Barker donated $270,000, the sum of salary payments he received as principal from 1968 to 1979, to West High School for the construction of a soccer field, now named Ed Barker Field.