Alwin Barney
Alwin “Al” Barney,former chief of security, died November 18, 2003, in Saratoga Springs. He was 88.
Al was hired in 1947 by President Henry T. Moore and guided campus security operations through many social changes, a new campus, and coeducation. On the old downtown Scribner Campus, he was responsible for a team of night watchmen, who conducted fire checks of all residential units -- which totaled 36 in the early 1960s. He trained and organized the watchmen into a security force that numbered 16 when the college was a two-campus operation from 1966 to 1982. Upon the move to the Jonsson Campus, Al was named director of the office, responsible for both security and safety education. Among the campus-safety innovations attributed to Al were the first emergency call boxes, which became known as “Barney Boxes.”
An avid fly fisherman, Al had also been a well-known baseball catcher with the Greenfield AC’s, the Saratoga Ponies, and other minor-league teams.
Wife Eleanor, who worked in the registrar’s office from 1960 to 1980, predeceased him. He was survived by a daughter, Jean.