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Illustrious Robert
South Barrett
Sovereign Grand Inspector General in Virginia from 1951 through 1959 |
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Dr. Robert South Barrett was born in Richmond, Virginia,
on March 30, 1877, the son of an eminent Episcopal clergyman, the Reverend
Dr. Robert S. Barrett, and Kate Wailer Barrett, one of the first women
medical doctors in the South and one of the founders and president for many
years of the Florence Crittenton Mission, a national institution for the rehabilitation
of unmarried mothers. He was a direct descendant of John Waller who landed at
Jamestown with Captain John Smith. Brother
Barrett was graduated from the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee,
which later awarded him the degree of Doctor of Civil Laws. He also attended
The George Washington University and Columbia University. After graduation from the University of the South, Dr.
Barrett began his career as a cub reporter on a New York paper. Then followed
ten years of newspaper work in Mexico, where he edited and published the
Mexico City Daily Record. It was
during this period of time that he wrote and published two tourist guides to
Mexico—Standard Guide to Mexico and
Blue Book of Mexico. On his return to the United States in the early 1900’s,
Dr. Barrett settled in Alexandria, Virginia; became Washington correspondent
for various Latin-American publications, and conducted a weekly column for a chain of American
newspapers. In 1911
he bought the
Alexandria Gazette, which he edited
and published for five years. He was President of the Virginia Press
Association in 1916. When World War I became imminent Dr. Barrett offered his
services to the nation and was appointed Trade Commissioner of the Department
of Commerce for Argentina, and commercial attache of the American Legations
at Paraguay and Uruguay. During time war he represented the United States
Shipping Board at Buenos Aires. When hostilities ended he became first vice
president of Portalis and Company, a great international banking and
commercial company. Based on these foreign experiences, he wrote many monographs
on South American trade. Dr. Barrett retired from business in 1924, hoping to
devote his time to travel and to philanthropic enterprises. While making a
tour of the world in 1925, he was recalled by the death of his mother and
induced to take her place as head of the Florence Crittenton organization.
This assignment, which he then considered temporary, continued through the
years, much to the financial advantage and the operation of this splendid
institution. For more than twenty-five years he served as president and then
became chairman of the board of trustees, which position he held at the time
of his death. His book, The Care of the
Unmarried Mother, and another on which he collaborated, Fifty Years’ Work With Girls, tell the
story of his work with that organization. At the time he returned to Alexandria, Dr. Barrett founded
the Alexandria Improvement Corporation, a real estate development and
investment business. He was vice president and director of this firm at the
time of his death. The Barrett
home at 404 Duke Street in Alexandria, where he
lived for about fifty
years, was built in 1780. It was in its living room that Representative
Bland Lee of Virginia prepared the bill establishing the District of Columbia
in 1786. In 1930 Brother Barrett was elected to membership in the
Royal Geographic Society of Great Britain, and in 1933 to the Virginia
Academy of Science. He was a world traveler, having traveled more than two
million miles in virtually every country. He was a member of the National
Press Club of Washington, D. C., the American Club of Buenos Aires, and the
Jockey Club. In his church activities, Brother Barrett was closely
associated with St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Alexandria, of which he was a
vestryman for a number of years. From 1931 to 1939 he served as treasurer of
the Commission on Faith and Order of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Dr. Barrett was well known for his generous gifts to
charitable organizations and public institutions, particularly those in
Virginia. With Mrs. Barrett, he contributed the funds to build the Kate
Waller Barrett building for the Alexandria Library, the Alexandria Boys’
Club, the Harper Memorial Auditorium at the Elks National Home at Bedford,
the infirmary at the Children’s Masonic Home in Richmond, which in 1957 was
converted to the Robert South Barrett Hospital, and the Kate Wailer Barrett
Dormitory at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia. They also established
scholarships and loan funds at the University of the South and the College
of William and Mary. Their philanthropic efforts were crowned in 1947 when
they created and conveyed to the Barrett Foundation approximately a million
dollars for charitable and educational purposes. This foundation was the major
contributor to the Alexandria Public Health Center. Brother Barrett’s philanthropic philosophy may be summed
up in his statement that “When money doesn’t really belong to you, you should
try to do the most good possible with it.” Dr. Barrett was a member of many organizations, but a
substantial part of his fraternal interests centered in the Benevolent and
Protective Order of the Elks. He was a trustee, vice chairman, and benefactor
of the Elks National Foundation, a charitable Organization, and also a
former Grand Treasurer. In 1944 he was elected Grand Exalted Ruler of the
Order of the Elks. The Masonic career of Brother Barrett was comprehensive
and outstanding. He was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason in
Puritan Lodge No. 7 of Mexico City in 1902, and when he returned to
Alexandria to make it his home he affiliated with Alexandria-Washington Lodge
No. 22 on May 28, 1908. In 1928 he was appointed Junior Steward and advanced
step by step until his election as Worshipful Master on December 27, 1932. In 1931 Brother Barrett received his first Grand Lodge
appointment as chairman of its committee to arrange for the bicentennial
celebration of the birth of George Washington. In 1932 he was named chairman
of the Grand Lodge committee on the dedication of the George Washington
Masonic Memorial on Shooter’s Hill in Alexandria, Virginia. He had been one
of the organizers and provisional secretary in 1911 of the George Washington
Masonic National Memorial Association. Again in 1934 he was asked by the
president of that Association to assist in raising additional funds. From 1934 until 1953, Dr. Barrett served as chairman of
the Endowment Committee of the Grand Lodge of Virginia. In 1937 he was
elected Grand Junior Deacon of the Grand Lodge and advanced through the
chairs until his election as Grand Master in 1942. During his term of office
as Grand Master he inaugurated a program of service to
Masons in the Armed Forces and established Masonic Service
Centers throughout the state. He and Mrs. Barrett donated the use of their
residence in Alexandria for that purpose. Some of the honors that were
conferred upon Brother Barrett while he was serving in the official line of
the Grand Lodge of Virginia where his appointment in 1938 by the Duke of Connaught
as Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of England to the Grand Lodge of
Virginia; his election to honorary membership in the Grand Lodge of North
Dakota in 1939; and his election in 1957 as Honorary Grand Master of the
Grand Lodge of Florida, the second time in the history of that Grand Lodge
that such an honor has been conferred by it, the other recipient being former
President Harry S. Truman, 33°, a Past Grand Master of Masons in Missouri. Brother Barrett became active in York
Rite Masonry in the early 1900’s and was a member of the Chapter, Council,
and Commandery at Alexandria. |
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His
other Masonic activities included participation in organizing Anezeh Temple
of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine in 1907 in Mexico City. After his return
to Virginia, he was elected to Honorary Membership by Kazim Shrine Temple of
Roanoke and Kena Shrine Temple of Alexandria. In 1940, he served as Sovereign
of St. Polycarp Conclave of the Red Cross of Constantine, of Richmond. While
in Argentina, he served as Provincial Grand Master of the Royal Order of
Scotland in that country. He was also one of the organizers of the George
Washington Chapter of the Order of DeMolay. The
highlight of Dr. Barrett’s Masonic career was in his activities in the
Scottish Rite, he became a member of the Scottish Rite Bodies in Mexico City,
having received the Thirty-second Degree there on December 23, 1906. Upon his
return to Alexandria in 1910, he helped organize the Lodge of Perfection of
the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in that Valley and served as its
first Senior Warden. Brother Barrett took an active part in the degree work
of the Alexandria Bodies and also in their educational programs. He was
honored by the Supreme Council in October 1923 by elevation to the Rank and
Decoration of Knight Commander of the Court of Honour, and on December 16,
1927, was coroneted a Thirty-third Degree Honorary Member of the Supreme Council.
His interest and activities in the Scottish Rite continued through the
years, and in December 1949, after the death of Sovereign Grand Inspector General
Robert S. Grump, 33°, Brother Barrett was appointed Deputy of the Supreme
Council in Virginia. On October 19, 1951, he was crowned an Active Member of
the Supreme Council and Sovereign Grand Inspector General in Virginia. At
this same Session of the Supreme Council he was elected to the office of
Grand Almoner, which he continued to hold until his death. By appointment of
the Grand Commander he served on several of the Standing Committees of the
Supreme Council. The Reverend Leon N. Laylor, Rector, conducted funeral
Services in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday,
February 26, 1959. Interment was in the family plot at Aquia Church, Stafford
County, Virginia. Brother Barrett was survived by his wife, Mrs. Viola
Tupper Barrett; three sons, Robert Tupper Barrett of Paris, France; Clifton
Waller Barrett of New York City; and Rear Admiral John P. B. Barrett, U.S.N.
ret., of Mt. Vernon, Virginia; a daughter, Mrs. Milton R. Greenland, of
Alexandria; 17 grandchildren and three great grandchildren; a brother, John
Barrett of Clifton, Virginia; and three sisters, Mrs. Edward Alfriend and
Mrs. Rathbone Smith, both of Alexandria, and Mrs. Charles Pozer of Fairfax,
Virginia. Another brother, Maj. Gen. Charles D. Barrett, U.S.M.C., made the
supreme sacrifice in the South Pacific area. |
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