Obituary of Charles-Warriner Barnes

DR. CHARLES WARRINER BARNESCharles Warriner Barnes, 90, of 800 Rice Valley Road North, died on August 17, 2003 at DCH Regional Medical Center, following a long il-lness. Services were held at Calvary Baptist Church on August 19, 2003 at 2:30 p.m. with Rev. Ronnie Brewer officiating. Burial followed at Tusca-loosa Memorial Park with Heritage Chapel Funeral Home directing. Vi-sitation was on August 19, 2003 from 1:30 p.m. until 2:30 p.m. at Calvary Baptist Church.Charlie, as he requested others to call him, was preceded in death by his parents, Anderson Sibley Barnes and Olga Warriner Barnes, and sis-ter, Betsy Barnes Webber.Survivors include his wife of 60 years, Flora Shirey Barnes; sons, Charles Anderson (Andy) Barnes (Nancy) of Downey, California and Thomas Joel Barnes of Tuscaloosa; daughter-in-law, Nancy Snider Barnes of Downey, California; grandsons, Charles Samuel (Sam) Barnes and William Anderson (Bill) Barnes of Downey, California; sister, Natalie Barnes West of Sam Cle-mente, California and nieces and nephews.Charlie was born in Birmingham and spent most of his younger years in Montgomery. He received his A.B. from Howard College and his M.R.E. and doctoral degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theologi-cal Seminary in Fort Worth, TX.Charlie served as Director of the Baptist Student Union at the Universi-ty of Alabama from 1940 to 1974, during which time he was also an instructor of Religion at the Universi-ty of Alabama and at Stillman Col-lege. Also, he led youth and religi-ous conferences in Alabama and neighboring states. A successor, Ronnie Brewer, said that Charlie set the standard for campus ministry programs across the South through his innovative methods for helping the spiritual lives of students, that he envisioned and saw to completion a state of the art Baptist Student Center which became a model for campuses everywhere, a place where students could find safe har-bor, friendship, and spiritual growth on the campus.Charlie served as Campus Minister at Livingston University from 1974 to 1979. During that time, he also served as Director of Missions for Bigbee Baptist Associational Minis-tries. After retirement, he and Flora served for a year as volunteer mis-sionaries at at Baptist Seminary in Nigeria. They then spent a year at Golden State Theological Seminary in San Francisco, where they stu-died and he served as a consultant to students who were working on campuses in the Bay area.Charlie received numerous awards for his work with students. In 1961, at the Alabama Baptist Student Con-vention in Birmingham, he was re-cognized for 20 years of service in student work. At the University of Alabama's spring commencement in 1968, he delivered the baccalau-reate address to the graduates, speaking on 'A Theology for Higher Education.' Later that day, he was granted an honorary Doc-tor of Laws Degree by Dr. Frank Rose, President of the University of Alabama, for having served over a quarter of a century as Director of the Baptist Student Union. In 1979, Charlie received a plaque from the Alabama Baptist Campus Ministries Department for 39 years of service as a campus minister. That same year, he and Flora were made ho-norary Livingston University Alumni by the Livingston University National Alumni Association in appreciation of their work with students. In March 2003, Charlie and Flora were named co-recipients of the Dean Paul Garner International Friend-ship Award by the Tuscaloosa Sister-Cities Commission for their service to internationals.Charlie was a long-time member of Calvary Baptist Church where he served as a deacon. He was active in civic affairs, once serving as Pre-sident of the Kiwanis Club of Tusca-loosa.In lieu of flowers, memorial contri-butions may be made to the Uni-versity of Alabama Baptist Campus Ministries Student Scholarship/Loan Fund.