Barr, John Alton (1911-1980)
Date Updated
8-11-2019
Department
Counselor Education
Academic Rank
Professor
Year Retired from SJSU
1979
Educational Background
State of California, 1960 Lic. Psychologist
University of Washington, 1949 Ph.D.
Harvard University, 1941 Counseling
University of Minnesota, 1938 MA
University of Minnesota, 1936 BS
Teaching Experience
San Jose State University, 1955-1979
Army Language School, Monterey, CA, 1960-1965
University of Washington, 1947-1955
Oregon College of Education, 1946-1947
Air Corps Cade Program, 1943-1945
Breck School for Boys, 1938-1943
Administrative and Professional Experience
Founding President of California Association of Humanistic Education and Development.
President of Western Association for Counselor Education.
Consultant to Japanese Ministry of Education,
Career Guidance Gerontology.
Executive Board of American Personnel and Guidance Association.
Director of Education and Guidance in International Programs.
Director of California Higher Education Study on Aging.
Chairman, Committee on Maturity and Aging, American Personnel and Guidance Association.
Selected Publications
Elementary Teacher and Guidance.
Guidance and the Schools, University of Washington Press.
Interpreting Test Results.
Career Films and Filmstrips;
Periodical articles, pamphlets;
Parent‑Teacher Conference Handbook.
Files
Personal Commentary
Jack achieved success in a variety of interests related to his career in education. He wrote a book titled The Elementary Teacher and Guidance, 1958. It was among the first and most important in the field at that time. Other publications have followed. His early interest in the use of data processing in education led him to be a leader in that field in California, and particularly as this related to career guidance. His final interest was in problems of the aging which led to his directorship of the California Higher Education Study on Aging for the California State University and College System in the last two years of his service as a Professor of Counselor Education. As a result of this study, he made both an oral and written testimony before the House Select Committee on Aging. He also served as the Director of the Inter‑Disciplinary Gerontology Program at San Jose State University and left that position only a very few months before his death.
Jack was a person who was self‑directed, eternally happy, and could always find a positive way to respond to the world about him. Any who met and knew Jack felt his positive nature and could not help but be absorbed by it. He was an idea man and encouraged many to move from passivity to activity. He had a sense of social consciousness which led him to design a program in Counselor Education which involved persons from the minority community, working directly with credentialed counselors, which ultimately resulted in their becoming credentialed counselors themselves. During the days of turmoil in higher and public education in the late 1960s, when many of us were inclined to be reactive, Jack was proactive in finding ways to respond to the needs expressed by the minority community.
Date Completed: 7/96
Adapted from: Biographies of Retired Faculty San Jose State University 1997: A Project of the Emeritus Faculty Association of San Jose State University. San Jose, CA: The University, 1997.