Friends,

I am writing to share the news of the passing of Barton Parks, Professor of Justice & Policy Studies emeritus, on October 12. He taught at Guilford for 29 years before his retirement in 2009 and was a resident of Friends Homes.

Barton was teaching Criminal Justice at Indiana University in 1980 when he decided to move with his family to Greensboro to chair a program that became Justice & Policy Studies at the College. He led three semesters abroad – London ’73, Guadalajara ’96 and Shanghai ’13. Hundreds of students sought him out long after they graduated.

Throughout his years at Guilford, Barton brought lessons he learned from the wider community into his classes. He coordinated multiple efforts to assist citizens in solving community problems and obtaining needed services where none were available. 

In the 1980s, Barton helped establish One Step Further, a mediation center for adults, youth, parents and families, and a Delancey Street Foundation site in Greensboro, providing a rigorous self-help approach for alternative sentencing of offenders. 

He was the founding chair of Project Greensboro, an organization designed to restore safety and security to neighborhoods with high crime and low income. 

In addition to his long tenure at Guilford, Barton taught Sociology at Middlebury College (Vermont) and Windham College (Vermont), and at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.

In 1996, Barton was the first of three Guilfordians honored by the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, with the Charles Duncan McIver Medal, recognizing North Carolinians who have rendered distinguished public service to the state or nation. 

Please hold Evelyn Bailey Parks, Barton’s wife of nearly 61 years, his daughters Lisa and Amanda and extended family and friends in the Light at this time of loss.

The family requests that memorial contributions be made to Delancey Street Foundation, 600 Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94107.

Sincerely,

Maria Rosales
Provost