While at the Melech LifePath Hospice, Dr. Barrow celebrated with pride, tears and applause the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States, while reflecting on his fellow Morehouse College classmate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His powerful involvement in the 1960’s with the Unity Democratic Club in Brooklyn, NY, resulted in the successful election of Representative Shirley Chisholm to the Congress of the United States, and most recently that fervor carried him on to work for the election of Barack Obama, while campaigning to be a Super Delegate.
Throughout his distinguished life and career, he provided leadership too many organizations. From 1961-1971, Dr. Barrow was a researcher in the advertising industry. In 1968, he became vice president and associate director of research for the nation’s third oldest advertising agency Foote, Cone and Belding in New York, New York. He served as Dean of the School of Communications at Howard University from 1975-1985 during which time the school radio station was established.
As a member of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Dr. Barrow pioneered and founded in 1968 the Ad Hoc Committee on Minority Education, in an effort to recruit, train and place minorities in communications. In 1970, he founded and became the acting head of the Minorities and Communication Division of AEJMC. The AEJMC established the Lionel C. Barrow Scholarship in his honor in 1970 to support graduate education for women and minorities seeking to become professionals in the communication field. The scholarship is available today. In 1997, he received the AEJMC Presidential Award for his contributions. His legacy survives in his research and in the faces, voices and contributions of African-Americans, other minority journalists, and women on radio, television and other media.
Dr. Barrow is survived by his beloved wife, Dr. Frederica Barrow, five daughters, seven grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. He was initiated into Alpha Rho chapter, Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, at Morehouse College, May 25, 1944.
A memorial celebration will be held for Dr. Barrow at Grace Episcopal Church in Tampa, Florida on February 8, 2009 at 1:00 pm. A second memorial celebration is planned in the Washington, DC area the weekend of February 14-15, 2009.
