death_date children nationality birth_date term_end restingplace alma_mater death_place profession order term_start spouse name predecessor birth_place office parents successor religion article_title
10 december 1950 josephine barker cooper american 1872 1919 prospect hill cemetery , nantucket , massachusetts cornell university rochester , new york administrator 2nd july 1 , 1916 katharine spooner florence mary edmonds james francis barker carleton b. gibson keokuk , iowa president of the rochester athenæum and mechanics institute james hussey barker , jr. maria josefina sarresqueta royal b. farnum episcopalian james francis barker

james francis barker

james francis barker -lrb- 1872 -- 10 december 1950 -rrb- was the second president of the rochester athenæum and mechanics institute , succeeding carleton b. gibson , from 1916 -- 1919 .
he was born in 1872 in keokuk , iowa , the son of a railroad ticketing agent and a new orleanian of spanish and french extraction .
his ancestors on his father 's side included 11 of the 15 families who settled nantucket in 1659 .
he graduated from cornell university in 1893 with a degree in mechanical engineering and spent another year studying architecture at the graduate level .
he briefly worked at d. h. burnham & company and allis-chalmers manufacturing co. before switching to education , becoming superintendent of the manual training department at east division high school in milwaukee , wisconsin in 1897 .
he left in 1904 to pursue similar positions at grand rapids high school and the hackley school in muskegon , michigan .
in 1906 , he participated in the formation of east technical high school in cleveland , ohio and served as its first principal .
he married the former kate spooner in 1897 and raised one daughter .
after being widowed in the late 1930s , he married josephine m. edmonds , a home economics teacher and half sister of international house of new york founder harry edmonds , in 1941 .
he came to the rochester athenæum and mechanics institute after his predecessor resigned to continue his work in the war relief effort .
he oversaw the institute during world war i , but subsequently left to become superintendent of junior and technical education in the rochester city school district .
he also served as general supervisor of evening , summer , and continuation programs for the district .
after he retired in 1936 , he operated a photographic studio called `` the eagle 's wing '' on nantucket island during the summer months .
he named the studio after an island steamboat his grandfather had captained on the great lakes .
he also pursued painting , pottery , metal working , and cabinet making .
he died in his rochester home at the age of 78 and is interred on nantucket .
