Obituary - William F. Barr

Dr. William F. (Bill) Barr, 91, of Moscow, died Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, surrounded by his loving family after nine months of hospice care at home. For his family and many others, he lived a life that mattered.

Bill was born Oct. 20, 1920, to Christine Marian Hansen and Eugene Briant Barr in Oakland, Calif. He proposed to his future wife in Berkeley, Calif., after returning home from World War II in 1945. They were married 65 years.

Bill enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the beginning of World War II and was trained as a Lockheed P-38 Lightning pilot, flying in air combat over Germany and central Europe. His main duties were flying escort for B-17 and B-24 bombers, dive-bombing and strafing railroad locomotives. He flew 51 missions; his plane was hit by enemy fire on three. Bill was awarded the Air Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross with four Oak Leaf Clusters, and European Service Medal. After the war, Bill was active with lifelong friends from World War II, attending 82nd Fighter Group, 95th Fighter Squadron reunions held across the country.

One unusual feature of his twin engine P-38 airplane was its nose art. While other pilots named their planes after pin-up girls, Bill's airplane was christened the "Tan Buprestid" and painted with a cartoon figure of a beetle holding two .45-caliber pistols. Bill had already decided his life's work would be the study of insects.

He graduated from high school in Oakland at age 16. After a year at San Francisco Junior College he transferred to the University of California at Berkeley, majoring in entomology. Bill left college to enlist, and after his active duty ended, both Bill and his wife returned to U.C. Berkeley. He was a few credits shy of his Bachelor of Science degree in entomology, and it was granted after summer field work. He then entered U.C. Berkeley's master's program to earn his Master of Science in 1947. That same year, when Bill was hired by the University of Idaho to teach entomology, the couple first moved to Moscow. At the time, he was the university's youngest assistant professor at age 26.

The Barr's first son was born in 1948 at Moscow's Gritman Hospital. After teaching for two years, Bill returned to U.C. Berkeley to earn his Ph.D. Their daughter was born in 1950 in Oakland. After Dr. Barr returned to the University of Idaho, their youngest son was born in Moscow in 1953. William F. Barr is survived by his wife; his three children; two grandchildren; and Bill's brother.

Lewiston Tribune, December 30, 2011, p. 5C
Transcribed by Jill Leonard Nock