1996 Bell Ringer

1996 Bell Ringer Award
Citation for Edwin Barrett

During his 37 years of teaching on College Hill, Edwin Barrett exuberantly shared an astonishing breadth of knowledge with his students. A man of passion as well as dramatic flair, who never quite lost his boyish enthusiasm, he could be tremendously entertaining in the classroom, but never at education’s expense.

He taught a remark­able range of courses, from Shakespeare and Elizabethan and Jacobean drama to the English novel and American literature.

As faculty advisor to the Charlatans and variously as an actor, director, and producer, he also took a prominent role in the theatrical life of the Hill. For many years, in addition, he zestfully conducted annual ­theatre trips to London and Stratford-on-Avon, now nostalgically recalled by alumni as the fabulously hectic “20 plays in 20 days.”

And when the theatre and dance department was established in 1978, he became its first chairman, a post he retained until shortly before his retirement as the Hamilton Alumni Memorial Professor of English and Drama in 1987. Thereafter, he continued to reside in Clinton, where he remained a generously contributing member of the community until his death a year ago.

Charming and witty, but also sensitive and caring, Ed Barrett will long be remembered with gratitude and fondness by the many alumni whose lives he touched and enriched.

Presented by the Alumni Association President
June 1, 1996

Alumni Awards Home