"We Never Forget Barkley"

Abstract

"We Never Forget Barkley" Betty Barger Pace Dr. Barkley Moore 1941 - 1994 The people ofthe small town of Oneida awoke to the splatter ofrain on their rooftops and a fog-filled day on January 25, 1994. It was a day like no other in that community. A stillness hovered over the entire community as the South Fork River meandered around the bends of the road. The cool winds whipped at the students as they began their day on the Oneida campus. But the coolness of the wind did not compare to the chill ofthe news the students were hearing: Glenn Barkley Moore had died during the night. Barkley was fifty-two years old and had been president of Oneida Baptist Institute for almost twenty-two years. Betty Barger Pace, an educator and free-lance writer from Leslie County, Kentucky , is agraduate ofOneida Baptist Institute and was a classmate ofDr. Glenn Barkley Moore. 18 I will never again be able to think of Oneida without thinking of Barkley Moore. He was a classmate of mine and more studious than all of us. Just about any time you saw him he had a book in his hand, and he always managed to look after his classmates. He was always ready to help those of us who needed it. "Betty, you didn't study hard enough," he complained, when I flunked Mr. Jackson's math test. "Meet me at the library after class and we'll see what's causing you all the trouble." Oneida Institute, at that time, was a small settlement school far back in the hills of Southern Appalachia. There were approximately one hundred students, forty teachers, and little money to run the school. Barkley Moore graduated from the Oneida Baptist Institute high school in 1958, and entered the University of Kentucky, where he studied political science and history. After graduating, he continued studying law at the university. But when he had just one year of law school to complete in 1964, he left and joined the Peace Corps. He was sent to Gonbad Kavus, a small city in northern Iran, for what he thought would be a term of two years. But in 1966, when his first tour ended, he asked to stay on for another full term. When this second term was up in 1968 the Iranians begged him to stay a while longer. Barkley Moore became a legend in Iran, not only with the Peace Corps, but among the Iranians in that part of the country. He was responsible for starting one good-sized library and thirty-one smaller ones. He inspired villagers who had no school to build one themselves, bringing education to them for the first time. As part of his Peace Corps responsibilities Barkley taught English fifty hours a week for four years. He spent all of his salary on "his" boys, buying them food and clothing. For six years he worked eighteen to twenty hours a day, seven days a week. The night before he left, the townspeople held a farewell party for him. The town hall was packed with seven hundred grateful people. To his astonishment it turned out that the women had been weaving especially for him for months. He was presented with carpet bags, saddlebags, prayer rugs, big rugs— thirty-two pieces in all! Many had his name blended into the design. One woman wove in "We never forget Barkley." Moore left the Peace Corps in 1970 and returned to the United States. The New York Times interviewed him about his future plans. "I want to do something similar to what I did over there, perhaps up in Appalachia somewhere. Or join the Peace Corps again." In the early 1970s Barkley returned home to his beloved Oneida, in Clay County, Kentucky. Many changes had taken place while Barkley 19 was away. The Reverend Chester Sparks was no longer president of the school. In fact, one of Barkley's former teachers, the Reverend David C. Jackson, had taken over that role. After several months Barkley joined the staff as Jackson's assistant. Then, on August 1, 1972, Barkley Moore became Oneida's ninth president. Barkley Moore devoted his whole heart and...