Bascom “Barney” Weaver Barnard established the Charlotte College Foundation and served as its first chair. His name features prominently in the early years of UNC Charlotte, and it adorns an 18,000-square-foot building completed in 1969, designed to serve as a facility for instruction and research.
Born Feb. 14, 1894, Barnard was a native of Asheville. He graduated from Trinity College (now Duke University) and completed a master’s degree from Princeton University in 1917. He returned to his alma mater, where he taught economics and served as alumni secretary and graduate manager of athletics until 1922. He eventually left academia for the private sector.
Starting in 1939, Barnard worked as an executive for American Commercial Bank (later NCNB, now Bank of America), American Discount Company and the American Credit Corporation while maintaining a busy roster of civic activities. He served on the board the Family and Children Service, the Salvation Army and as chair of the National Affairs Committee of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce. In 1966, he received one of Charlotte’s highest civic honors - the Civitan Distinguished Citizenship Award.
In that same year, Barnard founded Charlotte College Foundation, which by 1971 had raised $4.5 million for the fledgling University; since then, the foundation has since raised significantly more to support scholarship and academic programming at UNC Charlotte. He served as the foundation’s secretary and executive director and established the University’s Patrons of Excellence Program, which solicited gifts of $10,000 or more from individuals, foundations and corporations.
On May 30, 1971, the UNC Charlotte Academic Council presented Barnard with a resolution stating “Scholarships, professorships, research grants, additions to the library collection, faculty recruitment – all these and more have flourished at his hand. In short, he has helped to provide the margin that leads to excellence.”
Barnard died Sept. 27, 1980.
Atkins Library Special Collections contributed to this article.