In Memoriam Henry C. Barringer: A Personal Reflection

It is with great sadness that we at ICAR report that Henry C. Barringer, cocreator with the late Dr. Bryant Wedge of the “Center for Conflict Resolution,” which eventually became the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, passed away on January 14, 2009, at 88 years of age.

Henry, a retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer, was a delightful, generous individual with great vision for how the United States could be a force for positive peace in the world. It was this vision that enabled him and Bryant Wedge to work for the creation of a U.S. National Peace Academy in the 1970s and early 1980s, which eventually led to, in addition to the U.S. Institute of Peace, the establishment of CCR/ICAR in 1981. I am honored to have been associated with Henry and Bryant, as the very first faculty hire of CCR/ICAR in August 1981.

In those halcyon days, CCR was located in Fenwick Library on the Fairfax Campus as a part-time operation: Henry and Bryant were co-directors, Mary Lynn Boland was secretary, and I was split between CCR and the Department of Public Affairs, where I taught courses in International Relations. In the background as constant pillars of support were Professors Tom Williams, then Dean of the Graduate School, and Joseph Scimecca, then Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology (who eventually succeeded Henry and Bryant as CCR director).

During that time, Henry was indefatigable in his efforts to sustain CCR, including locating well-placed individuals in the community to comprise ICAR’s Advisory Board, providing financial and other support. One member of the Board, Ed Lynch, together with his wife Helen and son Bill, have been very generous to ICAR over the years, including leaving us their beautiful property at Point of View along the Potomac River. It was at Point of View, in fact, where I saw Henry for the last time during an unveiling last year of a portrait of our colleague Dr. John Burton, with whom I had worked at University College London in England. Henry was instrumental in bringing John to ICAR in the mid-1980s. Henry looked fit and lively and was as charming and sharp as ever!

On a more personal note, Henry’s generosity extended to giving me a lift to and from campus, since I was without a car during my first year at George Mason University. During those drives, Henry would talk about his time as a young U.S. Army officer at Bletchley Park, England, during World War II, working on cracking the German Enigma code and later interviewing German prisoners-of-war, and his experiences as a multilingual American diplomat during the Cold War in Burundi, Columbia, Congo, Denmark, Germany, and Greece.

Although Henry passed away shortly before the inauguration of President Barack Obama, I am convinced that he would have been pleased that, finally, we had a president who would embody what CCR/ICAR -- thanks to Henry and Bryant’s salutary efforts -- was trying to create: new generations of peacemakers.

Henry, we will miss you very much!