Awards

School of Public Health W.W. Patty Distinguished Alumni Award - 1990

About Harold M. Barrow

Harold M. Barrow was a professor of physical education and chairman of the Physical Education Department at Wake Forest University.

Born in New Bloomfield, MO, Barrow was a high school sports star at New Bloomfield High School. He received his A.B. from Westminister College in 1936, where he also played on its basketball and track teams. Next, he earned his M.A. from University of Missouri in 1942 and his P.E.D. from Indiana University in 1953.

Barrow started his 47-year career in education as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse from 1930 to 1934. After graduating from college, he was a high school coach and director of physical education in Fulton, MO. In 1943, he took a break from teaching to serve two years in the United State Navy. After his naval service, Barrow was the head football and basketball coach, and the director of athletics and physical education at Eureka College in Eureka, IL for three years.

He joined the faculty at Wake Forest in 1948 as a professor of physical education. Barrow became the chairman of the Physical Education Department in 1957 and remained in that role unti 1975. During his time at the university, Barrow wrote many articles and books on health and physical education including Man and Movement: Principles of Physical Education, which was published in three editions from 1971 to 1982, and A Practical Approach to Measurement in Physical Education, which he co-authored with Dr. Rosemary McGee from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He retired from Wake Forest in 1977.

Barrow's esteemed career earned him awards, such as the Medallion of Merit from Wake Forest University, the Kingdom of Callaway Award in 1958, Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from Westminster College in 1975, Distinguished Alumni Award from Indiana University in 1988, and the Hetherington Award from the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education in 1995. He served a president of the American Academy of Physical Education in 1979.