MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH BARRELL • 19 



their productive power. The loss of Irving, Pirsson, and Barrell is a 

 staggering blow to the geological faculty ; it disrupts the team and affects 

 fundamentally the plans for maintaining a strong, well-balanced depart- 

 ment. To carry out the program for organized graduate instruction 

 authorized by the university in 1902, Barrell was the first man called, 

 and quickly justified the choice. In the words of Professor Schuchert, 

 "He was a power among us and it was around him that our graduate 

 courses were built." 



Historical Sketch - 



In Professor Barrell, birth and education appear to have combined to 

 prepare for a distinguished career. Generations of seafaring men and 

 farmers in jSTormandy, England, Massachusetts, JSTew York, and New 

 Jersey may have contributed a taste for nature and disregard for refine- 

 ments and superficial views. For Barrell's father one must have the 

 highest admiration. He was an intellectual leader in a country town — 

 a lover of books and of the out-of-doors, a man who interested his chil- 

 dren in trees, insects, and stars and directed their reading in serious 

 topics relating to natural history. This man of learning and common 

 sense appears to have been responsible also for outlining the course of 

 training which made up the first three stages of an ideal program of 

 studies. What better course could be devised for a man set aside as a 

 physical geologist than that chosen for and by Barrell : elementary school 

 and high school in a rural village, a year at a city preparatory school, 

 four years of engineering studies, six years of mining practice combined 

 with teaching of mathematics, astronomy, mining, and metallurgy, and 

 capped by two years of graduate study of field and laboratory problems. 

 Few men at the age of thirty-one have built such a broad and solid base 

 for a future scholarly career. 



After receiving the doctorate at Yale in 1900, Barrell returned to 

 Lehigh as Assistant Professor of Geology — a position held open for two 

 years through the generosity of Prof. E. H. Williams, Jr. This appoint- 

 ment involved giving special attention to the economic and engineering 

 aspects of the geology and also instructing an elementary class in biology. 

 After teaching three years at Lehigh, Barrell was called upon to make 

 what he would have termed "the critical decision." His life had been 

 planned for a promising career as a mining geologist, with its desirable 

 professional and financial relations. The acceptance of an invitation ex- 



2 A biographj- of Barrell which Includes much detail of educational and family history, 

 compiled by Charles Schuchert, appeared in the American Journal of Science in October, 

 1919. 



