Reading Mr. Barr’s obituary, this seems a fitting post. It seems he was always tinkering, and had a great sense of humor. I had always considered myself a math kid and not much of a writer. Mr. Barr flipped that perspective on its head when he gave me a perfect score on my paper on Leonardo da Vinci, commenting “Bravo, Ian”. That support was huge for me, and gave me confidence to move into AP American History the next year, a move which pushed me to apply and be accepted into Stanford the following year. I still have that paper; learning of his passing motivated me to dig it up. I just wish I had connected the dots sooner to bring that paper with those comments back to Mr. Barr to thank him in person. It was nothing short of life changing.
