The Wilson College of Textiles, North Carolina State University and the American textile industry are mourning the loss of educator and leader Robert “Bob” Barnhardt, who passed away on Dec. 23, 2024.
Among his many accomplishments, Barnhardt served as dean of the then-College of Textiles from 1987 through 1999 – where he was responsible for moving the College of Textiles from Nelson Hall to its current home on Centennial Campus – and served as the university’s interim provost and interim chancellor in 2003 and 2004, respectively.
“Today, the Wilson College of Textiles stands on the shoulders of the leaders, staff and faculty since the first textiles class was taught at NC State 125 years ago. Dean Bob Barnhardt – our fifth dean – was one of the most transformational college and university leaders in our history. His dedication, compassion and creativity set the college up for success in the 21st century through bold action, including leading the way for us to become the first college to move to the world-renowned Centennial Campus in 1991,” Dean David Hinks says. “He also partnered with the North Carolina Textile Foundation board in the 1990s to raise substantial funds to establish the highest-value college-based scholarship program at NC State, the Centennial Scholarship program. The college just celebrated 25 years of Centennial Scholars which, with incredible donor support, has supported the education of more than 225 students. Bob will be missed dearly. At the same time, we are grateful for his lifelong dedication to textiles and will forever celebrate his legacy of helping people from all walks of life to transform their own lives and who, in turn, transformed the U.S. textiles industry.”
Launching a career in textile education
Barnhardt started his journey in higher education at what is now known as Thomas Jefferson University – just a few hours away from his hometown of West Pittston, Pennsylvania – where he earned a bachelor’s degree in textile engineering. He discovered his passion for teaching as a master’s student at the Institute of Textile Technology (ITT), where he noticed himself feeling consistently drawn to the challenges he had to overcome as a teaching assistant.
He bolstered this textile knowledge with a master’s and Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Virginia. By the time he reached his 30s, Barnhardt had already landed positions as department chair at Thomas Jefferson University and dean at ITT.
It was while he was serving as dean at ITT in Charlottesville, Virginia, that the leaders from the College of Textiles recruited him to become the next dean. In a 2006 interview with NC State University Libraries, Barnhardt says he and his wife were very happy with their life in Charlottesville. The promising possibilities of Centennial Campus, however, proved too strong of a pull.
“The concept of the Centennial Campus … I just thought was absolutely phenomenal and quite visionary. For what my background had been with a particular emphasis on applied research – that’s what we did at ITT – I could see that all coming together on this campus with [the] tremendous fundamental research history that we have,” he said. “And that [applied and fundamental research] would fit together perfectly.”
Moving the college
Barnhardt spent the first three to four years as dean at the College of Textiles mostly focused on executing this move, which was anything but academia as usual. Textiles was the first of NC State’s colleges to relocate to Centennial Campus.
Aside from the challenges inherent in any move to a new home, Barnhardt also had to manage the day-to-day impacts on students, faculty and staff, reassure concerned colleagues, and fundraise for new equipment to outfit the much larger space. And he had to manage all of this on top of another big change: splitting the college into two academic departments.
“While many people were involved in the move, it was Dean Barnhardt who encouraged, cajoled and convinced the faculty to become the pioneer college on Centennial Campus even though it was not a perfect world at that time,” says Nancy Webster, alumna and president of the North Carolina Textile Foundation Board of Directors.
Despite the late nights, hard work and difficult conversations he describes in his 2006 interview with NC State Libraries, it’s clear that overseeing this crucial part of the college’s history remained one of his proudest accomplishments.
“You can take any measurement that you want to measure at a university—whether it’s student enrollment, whether it’s student satisfaction with the courses, whether it’s the amount of generated research dollars, whether it’s the amount of short courses and all that—and they went up significantly when we came to the Centennial Campus,” he said of the impact.
Ultimately, he saw it as a catalyst for taking a more collaborative, modernized approach to higher education at both the college and the university as a whole.
“And I think most people at the university saw [Centennial Campus] as a physical location. But as we got into it, it’s a philosophy,” he said. “It’s a philosophy that says that academics and government agencies and industries can work side by side very effectively and can augment and supplement their capabilities.”
This transition was just one of the many ways that Barnhardt fundamentally prepared the college for the modern textile industry. During his time as dean, Barnhardt supported the faculty and staff in launching two new programs: a Ph.D. in textile technology management and an M.S. in textile engineering. He also secured accreditation for the college’s B.S. in textile engineering, which today is the only accredited program of its kind in the United States. After his role as dean for the college had ended, Barnhardt played a key role in negotiating the relocation of ITT to Centennial Campus and establishing its formalized partnership with the College of Textiles, resulting in new industry-focused partnerships and programs.
Overall, Barnhardt integrated the innovative, real-world, industry-focused mindset of Centennial Campus into the education earned by thousands of students during his time as dean, including Charles Heilig, now president of Parkdale Mills.
“Not only were we learning about how methyl-ethylene glycol reacts in a bath made up of different chemistries,” Heilig said in an interview for “Becoming the Wilson College of Textiles,” “we were also talking about what Ross Perot said or what Reagan was doing and how that was going to impact business, and you don’t get that unless a university is connected to its industry.”
The first iterations of two internationally-renowned research centers connected to the college, the Textile Protection and Comfort Center and The Nonwovens Institute, also began during his tenure.
Leading North Carolina’s largest university
Following a year of full-time teaching and a stint as the interim chancellor for ITT, NC State again called upon Barnhardt’s leadership and vision, this time to serve in one of the university’s most senior positions: interim provost.
He stepped in following the resignation of Provost Stuart Cooper. Then, in 2004, he rose to the role of interim chancellor at NC State after Marye Anne Fox left for a job at another university.
During this period of turnover in some of the university’s top leadership roles, Barnhardt provided much-needed stability.
“Dr. Barnhardt was deeply committed to teaching and leadership in higher education, and he was especially committed to NC State,” Chancellor Randy Woodson says. “His return to the university to serve as interim provost and interim chancellor speaks to this commitment, and we are incredibly grateful for his service.”
A lifelong love of teaching
Despite all the prestigious jobs and heavy responsibilities that filled Barnhardt’s decades in higher education, he stayed true to what drew him to this line of work in the first place: a passion for teaching.
Over this 44-year-long career, Barnhardt always taught at least one class, his family recalls in his obituary.
In fact, when he originally announced his plans to end his time as the college’s dean, he intended to spend the rest of his career teaching full time.
One of the students he may have impacted most, however, is one whom Barnhardt taught outside the traditional classroom setting: colleague and friend Jeff Joines. When he first joined the college as a faculty member in 2000, Joines had a background in industrial engineering, not textiles.
“When I arrived, Keith Beck, my department head, talked with Bob and asked him to teach me about textiles, and I was supposed to teach him about computers. Whether he was a better teacher or I was the better student, I learned more textiles than he did about computers,” Joines, now an associate dean for the Wilson College, remembers. “That started a friendship that lasted about 25 years.”
In addition to the background textile knowledge he had been asked to share, Joines says Barnhardt also went above and beyond to help him make valuable connections in the textile industry.
“He was so well respected,” Joines says. “He was instrumental in mentoring me about textiles.”
During their dozens of personal and professional trips together – often by train – they shared discussions that helped shape Joines’ vision as a leader of the college today.
“We had fantastic discussions about the state of the industry, education, and the college.”
Industry impact lives on
An introduction by Robert Barnhardt in the textiles industry meant a great deal due to the lasting and meaningful partnerships he built and nurtured with the industry’s largest companies and most influential executives.
He stayed in constant conversation with the “real world,” asking his contacts for honest feedback on how the college could better prepare students for the current state of a quickly changing industry.
“He was intimately involved with and respected by industry as well as his peers, and he was a visionary who not only had ideas but who shepherded them to completion. It was this vision that prepared the foundation for our college to adapt to the changing textile industry and positioned us for our worldwide leadership role today in both education and research,” Webster says. “And for this vision, leadership and encouragement, we owe him a debt of gratitude.”
Building on Dean Barnhardt’s vision
The remarkable legacy of Robert and his late wife, Shirley, continues to shape the future of textile students at NC State.
In 2018, the couple generously established the Robert A. and Shirley Barnhardt Endowment through the North Carolina Textile Foundation to amplify their impact. Their visionary gift directly supports textile students with financial need, providing essential funding for study abroad, participation in local and global internships and mentorship opportunities, and assistance during emergency hardships. The endowment also supports key programmatic initiatives within the Wilson College of Textiles.
During their lifetimes, the Barnhardts changed lives through the Robert A. and Shirley S. Barnhardt Centennial Scholarship, awarding merit-based scholarships to exceptional undergraduate students pursuing textiles degrees at NC State. Their contributions to the Dean’s Textiles Innovation Fund addressed critical areas of need within the college, ensuring resources were available when needed the most.
Beyond their commitment to the Wilson College of Textiles, Bob and Shirley generously supported the Park Scholarship program, the Caldwell Fellows program, the NC State Marching Band, NC State University Libraries, the Gregg Museum of Art and Design, the Arts NC State collective, and the NC State Alumni Association.
The Barnhardts were proud members of the C. W. Dabney Lifetime Society and R. S. Pullen Society, which honor alumni and friends who provide transformational deferred gifts to NC State.
Those who feel inspired to honor the legacy of Dean Barnhardt are invited to give to the Robert A. and Shirley Barnhardt Endowment to continue their enduring legacy for future generations of textile students.
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