Emily Wood '05

With the Round Square Conference earlier this year and the presidential election on November 2, fall term has been dominated by international themes. How fitting, then, that on Tuesday, October 12, Frederick "Rick" Barton '67 received the Heritage Award at School Meeting.

The academy gave Mr. Barton the award in recognition of his "lifelong commitment to encouraging positive change" and democracy, according to the award citation, as well as for his remarkable dedication to strengthening the international community.

After graduating from Deerfield in 1967, Mr. Barton went on to get his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and then, in 1982, his MBA from Boston University. After college, he became active in the Democratic Party and was chair of Maine's chapter of the party from 1986 to 1989. During this period, he was also a delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business in 1986. In 1992, Mr. Barton became active in the start-up of the Clinton campaign for the state of Maine.

After his work in domestic politics, Mr. Barton turned his sights on the rest of the world and has been involved with many internationally oriented agencies. He worked as the United Nations' Deputy Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva and then became the first director of the Office of Transition Initiatives at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington, D.C. While at the U.N., Mr. Barton, with 5,000 colleagues and an $850 million budget, helped "22 million uprooted people in 130 countries," according to his Heritage Award citation. At USAID, "He was recognized for bringing quick and economic relief to war torn regions...and bringing help to millions of refugees," said Mimi Morsman, the director of alumni and development.

His work has often taken him to countries that are considered "global hot spots" and are very dangerous, unstable nations, such as the Sudan, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan. Most recently, he was in Iraq.

He showed us just how dangerous that country is during school meeting when he told us that nearly every place he stayed in Iraq has been blown up since his return to the United States.

Mr. Barton, with all of his travels and exotic home addresses (he has lived in seven countries) has never forgotten his roots here at D.A. Since he began his international work, Rick Barton has returned to Deerfield numerous times to share his wealth of knowledge with the community.

One of his notable visits occurred while he was director of the Office of Transitions Initiatives for USAID. From March of 1997 to January of 1999, Deerfield celebrated its Bicentennial with a series of activities, including the Grand Celebration, which took place in October of 1998. For this main event, Mr. Barton acted as the moderator of a panel called "Through a Looking Glass Brightly: Perspectives on a Changing World." where he was able to use his foreign expertise extremely well.

In July of 2003, Mr. Barton again returned to campus as the opening speaker for Look to the Hills: the Deerfield Summer Institute. "At that time, Mr. Barton had just returned from being in Iraq for 11 days and his remarks were poignant, informative and a bit unsettling about what would unfold [there]." said Mrs. Morsman.

Currently, Mr. Barton is the Senior Advisor and Co-Director of the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. He also serves as a visiting lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.

"Clearly, he has made a difference in world affairs and continues to do so," stated Mrs. Morsman, while, as his Heritage Award citation states, he has "seen horror, raw images, and intense victimization and yet [he] cling[s] to the ethos of democracy."

Undoubtedly, Rick Barton has proven his commitment to bettering the world and living up to the heritage he inherited from Deerfield Academy.