Bishop Middleton S. Barnwell was the first president of Boise Junior College (1932-1934).
Born on September 9, 1882 in Louisville, Kentucky, he received an associate’s degree from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, and a Bachelor’s in Divinity and later an honorary doctorate from the Episcopal Virginia Theological Seminary. Barnwell had a long career within the church and his career brought him to work in many different states. He first served as the assistant rector at Christ Chapel in Baltimore in 1909 until 1911, when he became rector of St. Andrew’s Church in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was here that he met and married Margaret Thorne Lighthall (1889–1960). From Massachusetts he moved to the Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama, from 1913 to 1923, where he became field secretary to the Protestant Episcopal Church.
In 1925 Barnwell was consecrated Bishop of Idaho; during this time in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Bishop Barnwell ran St. Margaret’s School, a secondary girls’ academy in Boise, Idaho. Attendance reached an all time low due to an excellent public school system and the Great Depression. In 1932, Bishop Barnwell had the idea to convert the academy into a junior college for women, this would allow local high school graduates to begin their college education without out-of-state costs. As the Bishop went around to drum up support for his idea, male high school seniors accosted Bishop Barnwell and emphatically stated that with no jobs and no money available, they too needed the junior college. These high school boys put together a good argument and met with the Bishop several times to plead their case. They finally won out and on August 15, 1932 the Bishop announced that the junior college would be coeducational. While he found little local support, Barnwell secured funding from The Episcopal Church.
On September 6, 1932, Boise Junior College opened its doors to about 75 students and fourteen faculty members (eight of whom were full-time). In 1934, he recommended that Boise Junior College become a public institution in order to receive tax payer dollars. A few months later the responsibility of the school was shifted from Bishop Barnwell to a Junior College Committee sponsored by the Boise Chamber of Commerce.
After nearly a decade as Bishop of Idaho, Barnwell became the fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Georgia where he served until 1954. At the time of his election, there were 16 parishes, 21 organized missions, 13 unorganized missions, five mission stations and one parochial mission. The still segregated church records noted 5,391 white and 1,029 black communicants. During his tenure as bishop the Diocese grew to 8,156 total communicants with two more churches becoming parishes and four additional missions created.
Bishop Barnwell, passed away on May 6, 1957, and is buried in Savannah, Georgia next to his wife Margaret Thorne Lighthall Barnwell.
Sources:
“Middleton Stuart Barnwell.” Archives of the Diocese of Georgia RSS. 2010.
Glen Barrett. Boise State University: Searching for Excellence, 1932-1984.
MSS 91, Episcopal Diocese of Idaho Records.