Education
He attended the University of Northern Iowa and served in the United States. Army as part of the United States. occupation of Japan.
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Edwin Barker
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Career
He retired as principal in 1979 to pursue business activities. Edwin Barker is a native of Indianola, Iowa, where his ancestors were pioneer settlers. 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 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 Editor Barker Field.
