H. Philip Barnhart, the former Housing director who oversaw the construction for the University’s post-World War II housing expansion and shaped the future of student housing as the chief architect of modern residence hall life at the University, died July 26 from lung cancer at the age of 87. Students might recognize Barnhart’s name from the residence hall named in his honor.
Born in Bellafonte, Pa. in 1918, Barnhart received a bachelor of science degree from Pennsylvania State college and became director of food services at the University in 1949, becoming director of dormitories in 1951 and serving in University Housing until he retired in 1979.
Current Director of Housing, Mike Eyster said that Barnhart’s legacy is the core system of residence halls that exists on campus today. Barnhart’s three-decade tenure was characterized by unprecedented expansion and a series of innovations that in some ways mirrors the University Housing’s
current re-invention.
Barnhart oversaw the construction of four of the seven of the University’s residence halls, the Westmoreland apartments and the 1975 acquisition of the “College Inn,” located at 1000 Patterson St., and renamed University Inn. The building once again swapped monikers, becoming H.P. Barnhart Hall in August 2001 to honor Barnhart’s progressive vision for the future of residence hall life.
“If you look at other residence halls on other campuses from that era they tend to be 12-stories high, long corridors and sort of institutional – not very much that promotes community development,” Eyster said. “If you look at (Hamilton), Earl and Walton they’re low-rise buildings, they have lounges with fireplaces in them that are designed to feel like a living room and promote conversation – interactions between students and faculty.”
Barnhart’s son, Oregon state Rep. Phil Barnhart, said his father brought a new and progressive sensibility to the job, insisting that “housing shouldn’t just be a place to get fed and keep dry.” His building projects, like Bean, Hamilton and Westmoreland – although now considered dated – were among the first to incorporate the concept that housing should attempt to foster a community and continue the education of its inhabitants. Barnhart was also ahead of his time by experimenting with a shift from large impersonal cafeterias to smaller dinning rooms.
In a 1963 letter to the committee for student-faculty conduct, H.P. Barnhart explained his philosophy regarding the purpose of student housing. “No resident can live as an individual,” he wrote.
“He always thought of it as more than just a hotel – it was a learning place,” Philip Barnhart said.
Eyster and said that H.P. Barnhart also made an impression as a caring boss who considered all his employees as a team – only missing the annual janitorial staff holiday potluck once, last year. Phil Barnhart said that inclusiveness was indicative of his father’s own heritage as the youngest of 12 children in a blue-collar family from Pennsylvania.
“In the days when he came to the University, people who wore white shirts and ties didn’t talk to people in blue shirts – for him it was perfectly natural,” Barnhart said.
In college H.P. Barnhart studied hotel hospitality and afterwards fought in World War II, where he landed on Omaha beach on D-Day. In 1945 he married Winifred Driver in the Netherlands while still serving in the Army, choosing that locale because it was the only European country with a functioning civil system. After the war the couple moved to New York before Barnhart was hired as the first professional housing director in the state of Oregon.
In his spare time Barnhart was a bowler and was particularly fond of the outdoors, enjoying hiking and hunting with family and friends. For 44 years he took annual trips to eastern Oregon to hunt elk, though Philip Barnhart remembers only one fruitful trip.
H.P. Barnhart is survived by his wife, his three sons; Philip, Peter and Paul; and his five grandchildren.
A memorial service for the Springfield resident will be held at 1 p.m. Aug. 11 in the outdoor commons area at the northeast corner of 15th Avenue and Agate Street. A “tea and coffee” celebration of life will be at 9 a.m. Friday, Aug. 11, at the top of Mount Pisgah. An service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12, at
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Eugene.
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