Rev. J. Robert Barth, 74, scholar and 'voice' of BC
The Rev. J. Robert Barth had a way with words.
The Jesuit priest recorded poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, played King Arthur in a Boston College production of ''Camelot," and narrated a college performance of Aaron Copland's symphonic ''Portrait of Lincoln."
''He had a deep, mellifluous voice and great diction. We used him any time we needed a voice for a recording. He was the voice of Boston College," professor Jeffrey Howe said yesterday.
Father Barth, an English professor and the former dean of BC's College of Arts and Sciences, died of renal cell cancer Wednesdayat Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He was 74.
''He was incredibly warm and welcoming to people of all walks of life," said Chase. ''He was small in stature, but big in presence."
As dean of BC's College of Arts and Sciences from 1988 to 1999, Father Barth established the school's theater and arts departments and oversaw the opening of the McMullen Museum of Art. he also founded the Boston College Arts Council, which organizes the school's annual arts festival
''He was a seminal force, who brought us into the 21st century with his ideas about the interdisciplinary aspects of the arts," said John Michalczyk, chairman of the Boston College Fine Arts Department. ''Because he had a background in literature, philosophy, theology, and the arts, he was able to see that they are separate, but work hand in hand."
Father Barth was particularly enthusiastic about film. ''He saw the medium as art, rather then just entertainment, " said Michalczyk.
A fan as well as an expert , Father Barth was known for spot-on impersonations of actors Barry Fitzgerald and Bela Lugosi.
Father Barth recorded CDs of poetry by William Wordsworth, Francis Thompson, and Gerard Manley Hopkins.
''He read poetry extremely well," said Michalczyk. ''He was remarkable in his sensitivity to the written word."
Father Barth was born in Buffalo. He graduated from Bellarmine College in Louisville, Ky., and earned a master's degree in English at Fordham University in New York, and a doctorate at Harvard University. He taught English at Harvard and the University of Missouri before joining the faculty at Boston College in 1988.
Father Barth was the author of several books, including ''The Symbolic Imagination: Coleridge and the Romantic Tradition" and ''The Religious Perspective in Faulkner's Fiction."
''He was a major scholar in romantic literature -- Coleridge in particular-- but he was also a much-loved teacher, who was a sterling presence in the classroom," said John Mahoney Sr an English professor at Boston College. ''He read poetry aloud beautifully, not only on recordings, but in front of a class. ''
Father Barth leaves his father, Philip C. of Juno Beach, Fla.; three brothers, Philip C. Jr., also of Juno Beach; Eric of Park Rapid, Minn., and Roger V. of Bethesda., Md.; and two sisters, Sue Starapoli of Rochester, N.Y., and Shari McCarthy of Florida.
A funeral Mass will be saidMonday at 10 a.m. in St. Ignatius Church in Newton. Burial will be in New York Province of the Society of Jesus Cemetery in Auriesville, N.Y. 