Barrett sets sights on life after retirement

By Lacey Hawkins
J-School Web Reporter

photo by Tim Kupsick

Professor Sharon Barrett gazes at a lifesize cut out of Christopher Reeves' Superman, which a student gave to her after the completion of a course.

After 25 years as a journalism professor at the University of Montana, Sharon Barrett has decided to retire to explore the many possibilities the world has to offer and experience life without work.

"Including my jobs throughout my college life I have been working for 50 years now," said Barrett, "and a half a century is a while."

Barrett, 64, came to the University of Montana in 1981 and has taught many journalism classes including editing, reporting, opinion writing, magazine writing and the literature of journalism.

The decision to retire was very hard, she said. The deciding factor, however, was that her husband, Richard Barrett, is also retiring this year from the UM Economics Department. The joint retirement will allow Barrett and her husband to travel more, something that has been limited by their jobs before now.

Barrett will not fully retire from the journalism school just yet, so some travel may need to be postponed. She is hoping to sign a post-retirement contract with the university that would allow her to continue teaching part time on a year-to-year basis.

"It's sort of a way of weaning me away from here," said Barrett. "This has been a really important part of my life for the past 25 years."

Barrett would also like to teach in the new building, scheduled to be completed for the Fall 2007 semester.

One of the hardest sacrifices of retirement is giving up the students because each class has had its own personality and there have been some really moving times, she said.

One student in feature writing told of growing up as an abused child, Barrett said. "It was so moving that the whole class was in tears."

In 2002, Barrett was awarded the "Distinguished Teacher Award" from the University of Montana. The award is based on faculty nominations and then student support, which Barrett found “very pleasing.”

Carol Van Valkenburg, chair of the print department, said Barrett made a huge contribution to the journalism school as the first full-time female faculty member.

"She was really a groundbreaker in an area that we don't think much about anymore," said Van Valkenburg.

She also said that with the class in the literature of journalism Barrett expanded the curriculum into new fields.

Barrett completed her undergraduate work in English and journalism at Indiana University. She then completed her master’s in English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Before becoming a professor at the UM, Barrett worked for 10 years at the Missoulian, the last three as city editor.

She decided to become a professor because she had always taught in some way, she said. In college, Barrett helped teach summer high-school journalism classes.

"As a newspaper editor I worked with reporters and mentored them a lot, and I felt as though I was a teacher.”

Journalism professors are still able to practice their profession, she said, so it is the "best of all possible worlds."

Barrett said that with more leisure time at her disposal she has decided to become a student again.

"There is still a lot to learn. I really don't know much about astronomy, and I'd like to know more than there is just some stars and the moon up there."

Barrett would also like to keep up with Spanish and perhaps study French because she is "fascinated by languages."

Barrett has spent many years of her life traveling and teaching English and journalism in foreign countries. She lived in Mexico for three years, taught English there and worked for El Norte, a Spanish language daily in Monterrey. She has taught journalism (in Spanish) in Peru, Uruguay and Colombia.

Barrett also plans to continue freelancing articles for various magazines and reviewing books for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Barrett admits the thought of retirement is scary.

"It's almost like getting married, you don't really know how it will be until you do it."

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