Patricia Eleanor Barber, 69, who served as principal of St. Francis of Assisi School in Triangle for 28 years, died May 15.
Born in Roanoke October 7, 1954, Barber described her joyful approach to education in a 2019 article in the Catholic Herald. “What I really love is to see when the teachers and the students arrive with a smile on their face,” she said. “Their joy is my joy.”
Known at school as “Dr. Barber” and by friends and family as “Tricia,” Barber, who retired in October 2023, earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Georgia, and a master’s degree and doctorate in educational administration from Texas A&M University in College Station.
She embraced the changes she saw at St. Francis School in nearly three decades, telling the Catholic Herald that the student population had grown from one non-white student when she started, to nearly half of the enrollment in 2019.
“That is part of the nature of being Franciscan,’ she said. “There are students from all over the world and that has been such a plus. I feel it’s so advantageous to the dynamics of being a Franciscan Catholic school.”
“She devoted her entire life to the children,” said Liz Orille, director of admissions at St. Francis. “She just embodied Franciscan spirituality. There was never any problem that she couldn’t turn around and make it something positive.”
Barber is survived by her husband of 40 years, Robert Winkler; mother Anne Barber; children Tess Young and Cragin Eres; three grandchildren; and a niece.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations may be made to St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School, 18825 Fuller Heights Road, Triangle, VA 22172. A Mass of Christian Burial was offered at St. Francis of Assisi Church May 29.
