The Sandspur

Issue date: 2/4/05 Section: Holt News

Too very often, we think that helping others requires a great deal of money, authority, or celebrity status. On the contrary, here at the Rollins College Hamilton Holt School, we are capable of making significant changes and recognizing meritorious achievement even without such luxuries.

Since 1984, the Holt School has annually recognized an exceptional member of its faculty, with the Distinguished Teaching Award (renamed in honor of Walter E. Barden in 1988). Unlike most traditional academic accolades however, this award is voted upon and presented by the student body of the Holt School.

To understand the significance of the award, it is important to recognize the individual for whom the award is named. Professor Barden was born on June 30, 1917 and died on August 6, 1988. His bond with the college, especially the evening program, started not as a professor but as a student. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1961 from what was then the Continuing Education Program (now Hamilton Holt).

Being a nontraditional student himself, Barden saw the need to apply his acquired knowledge in Mathematics in the service of the school he graduated from and loved. Hence, he started to teach College Algebra (100G, 101G, and 102G) to Holt students that very same year (1961) until 1978.

In addition to his duties at Rollins, Barden also worked full time as a Customer Service Superintendent at Orlando Utilities for almost 30 years. He was also known as a talented musician and a well-known moderator of the Sunday Classical Segment on WPRK 91.5 FM. Yet, none of these accomplishments can be of greater magnitude to Rollins than his gift to many nontraditional students. Like so many of us today, we compared walking into a Mathematics classroom like walking into a haunted house.

However, those who were lucky enough to have him as a professor, would leave his class filled with love for a subject they had previously been intimidated by. As Rollins President Emeritus, Dr. Thaddeus Seymour described Barden, "Not only is he a master of the profession, he also has that rare ability to take a student who normally would avoid Mathematics, and miraculously transform him into a lover of numbers."

For his loyalty, continued service to Rollins, and most importantly, his dedication to his students, Barden was presented the George Morgan Ward Medal on May 26, 1979. Sometime before Mr. Barden's death, Pat Nurkiewicz, a Hamilton Holt student, wrote a letter to the School, in which she articulated the magical impact Barden had on her, "My relief at accomplishing my [mathematics] course was dwarf ed by my appreciation of an excellent teacher. They don't make'em like Mr. Barden anymore...never before have I seen a teacher so willing and available to help a struggling student!...His enjoyment of mathematics is contagious...He's a remarkable man" (courtesy of the Rollins Archives).

It would not be fair to refer to Barden as just a great Rollins alumnus and a distinguished professor; he was the Rollins community because in addition to him, his entire family including his wife, his son, and his daughter each graduated from Rollins.

It is my hope that professor Barden's story will not only serve as a funnel to fuel professors with the tolerance and willingness needed to go to the extra mile for students in need, but remind everyone of the famous and truthful words of Winston Churchill, "We make a living by what we get, but make a life by what we give." Thus, keep in mind that you can change the world through your good deeds.

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