A Message from the President | University of Colorado

Creating a fairy tale life and sharing it with others

Len Barron (Photo by Pinque Clark)

The road we've traveled is an important part of who we become. Len Barron, A&S'67, attended CU-Boulder when he was 30 years old after years spent hauling scrap iron, selling magazines and driving a taxi. He went on to become the founder of the Clearing House, which for 47 years has offered students the opportunity to be engaged in the community.

Beginning his freshman year at CU-Boulder in 1963, Barron was quickly inspired by the energy and ideals of the civil rights movement and programs such as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps Vista, which seeks to end poverty.

In the summer of 1965, Barron enrolled in a work-study course and was assigned to the Boulder Juvenile Court. There he met with people in a number of community agencies, including the Head Start Program in the public schools, a disability program, the YMCA and a recovering tuberculosis sanitarium for Navajo children.

"I spoke with them about providing student volunteers for their programs and they welcomed the possibility," he said. "During the summer I laid out a plan to get it started."

That plan became the Clearing House. The week before school began in the fall, eight students joined the project, he said. The first week of school he and his associates spoke in many classes and the Colorado Daily ran a two-page spread describing the volunteer positions.

"In the second week, 427 students volunteered," Barron said. Within three years the Clearing House was one of the largest student volunteer programs in the country.

Barron - an educator, playwright, director, performer, writer, dancer and kitsch gardener - was just getting going. He went on to create an Einstein theater piece, "Walking Lightly . . . A Portrait of Einstein" in 1988, and "Einstein and Niels Bohr...A Fairy Tale" in 2009.

"In this fairy tale we learn from Einstein and Bohr that knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life," he explained. "Something more is needed to produce a truly educated person."

Like so many University of Colorado alumni - traditional and nontraditional - Barron has proved to be an invaluable and insightful member of the community, and a truly educated person.

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