Donald Barr


Donald Barr was an Office of Strategic Services agent, an American educator, and a writer. He taught English at Columbia University, was headmaster at the Dalton School in New York City and the Hackley School in Tarrytown, New York, and wrote two science fiction novels. One of his sons is United States Attorney General William Barr.

Early life and education

Barr was born in Manhattan, New York, the son of Estelle, a psychologist, and Pelham Barr, an economist. He and his wife, Mary Margaret, had four children including William P. Barr and particle physicist Stephen Barr.
He was born to a Jewish family, but later converted to Catholicism; he sent his children to a Catholic elementary school and his son William would later describe him as "more Catholic than the Catholics."
Barr graduated from Columbia College in 1941 where he majored in mathematics and anthropology.

Career

Barr served in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. He was teaching English at Columbia University in 1955. He initiated the Columbia University Science Honors Program in 1958 and was its director until 1964.
Donald Barr was headmaster of the Dalton School from 1964 to 1974. During his time as Dalton's headmaster, Barr is alleged to have had a role in hiring Jeffrey Epstein as a math teacher despite the fact that Epstein had dropped out of college and was only 21 years old at the time. In 1973, Donald Barr published Space Relations, a science-fiction novel about a planet ruled by oligarchs who perform child sex slavery. It has been noted that the plot of the novel reflects the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.
Barr worked as an educator in and around New York City from the 1950s to 1980s and reviewed books for The New York Times. In addition to his two science fiction novels, he sold two stories to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction; one of these was reprinted in the 2003 anthology Year's Best Fantasy 3.
In 1983 President Reagan nominated Donald Barr to be a member of the National Council on Educational Research.

Selected works